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Jerash
There are four Roman cities in Jordan, in addition to
Jerash, which formed part of the Decapolis.
Jerash is reached by a short drive 47 km (29 miles) North of Amman and is an ancient
Graeco-Roman city, once known as Gerasa. It has been dubbed the 'Pompeii of the East', because of its extraordinary state of preservation, Jerash is a vast city, which flourished in the centuries immediately preceding and following the Christian era. At the approach to the city, the visitor is greeted by the imposing triple-arched gateway, built to honor the Emperor Hadrian when he arrived there in 129 A.D.
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Jerash formed part of the Decapolis, a league of ten cities built by the Romans and dating from the first century B.C. Today, visitors may wander among the original temples, theatres, plazas, public baths and colonnaded streets complete with sculptures fountains, all enclosed within the still-remaining city walls.
The great oval forum, once the center of social activity within the city, is impressively well preserved and is approached by means of the Street of Columns.
Archaeological evidence of earlier settlements has also been discovered, indicating human occupation, from the Bronze and Iron Ages, the Hellenistic, Byzantine, Umayyad and Abbasid periods. The city's 14 churches with their beautiful mosaic decoration all date from the Byzantine era. The annual Jerash Festival of Culture and Arts is held for two weeks every summer in July, and is an important cultural event, featuring performing artists from all over the world. This event has international recognition and is a source of great pride to the culturally minded people of Jordan. There is also a daily sound and light show in English French, German and Arabic during the festival.
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Desert Castles
Scattered throughout the desert East of Amman are a number of castles, which constitute the most important examples of early Islamic art and architecture to be found anywhere in the Middle East. The castles were built in the 7th and 8th centuries AD by caliphs of the Umayyad dynasty, who constructed them as both palace retreats and as fortification.
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Qasr Azraq
Qasr Azraq is a castle built of basalt, located in the middle of the Azraq Oasis, about 100km east of Amman. It was originally constructed as a Nabataean or Roman fort and was later rebuilt by the Mamelukes in the 13th century.
The Azraq oasis contains the only permanent source of fresh water in the surrounding 12 thousands square miles of desert and, in consequence, attracts a large number of birds en route for migration destinations.
Part of the area is now protected as a wetland reserve. Although up to 300 bird species were recorded during the 1970s, this number has declined drastically, due to the pumping of water from the oasis to supply an ever-increasing demand in Amman.
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Qasr Kharanah
Qasr Kharanah is yet another imposing fortress built by the Umayyads, once thought to have been constructed for defense purposes. It is perhaps more likely that it was a former caravansary, where camel caravans pulled in to break their journey.
The thick walled structure has two floors of living space topped by an open roofed area and is built around a courtyard. The windows are narrow, arrow-slots and open in al directions, lending considerable credence to the fortress theory, although many historians feel that they would have offered insufficient field of fire to archers and are more likely to have been used for light and ventilation. Decorations are few, but some frescoes are to be found in the upper rooms.
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