The Oval Plaza
An oval colonnaded forum, a shape with almost no parallel in Roman architecture.
Jean Housen — CC BY 3.0 · Thaler Tamas — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Arian Zwegers — CC BY 2.0 · Jean Housen — CC BY 3.0
One of the most complete Roman cities surviving outside Italy, and the thing that most surprises visitors who came to Jordan for Petra alone. Gerasa was one of the ten cities of the Decapolis and flourished in the first and second centuries on the trade road. An earthquake in 749 emptied it, sand covered it for centuries, and that burial is precisely why it survives so complete. No modern town was built over it, as happened elsewhere. You enter through Hadrian's Arch, then reach the Oval Plaza — an oval forum ringed by Ionic columns, a shape so rare in Roman architecture that it has almost no parallel. From it the colonnaded street runs some eight hundred metres, with chariot wheel ruts still cut into its paving. Along it stand the Temple of Artemis with its huge columns, the South Theatre whose acoustics still work, the nymphaeum fountain, the Temple of Zeus, and Byzantine churches with mosaic floors. The site is large and the walking long over uneven stone; three hours is a realistic minimum. In the South Theatre, bagpipers in Jordanian dress play several times a day — a habit left over from the British Mandate, and startling if you do not expect it. It is a day trip from Amman, usually combined with Ajloun Castle on the same road.
An oval colonnaded forum, a shape with almost no parallel in Roman architecture.
Eight hundred metres, with chariot ruts still cut into the paving.
Its acoustics still work, and bagpipers play there several times a day.
Jerash, about fifty kilometres north of Amman
Yes — many visitors rate it Jordan's second site after Petra. It is about fifty kilometres and an hour by car, and the usual plan is Jerash in the morning, Ajloun Castle in the afternoon, back in the evening.
A hire car or a driver for the day, which is the common choice and allows Ajloun to be added. Public buses from Amman's north terminal are far cheaper but slow, with uncertain timings that make combining two sites in one day difficult.
Spring and autumn. Summer is very hot and the site has no shade; winter is wet and the stone slippery. The Jerash Festival in summer is held inside the site itself — a different experience, but it crowds the place and shifts the hours.
Sign in to write your review of this place.
No reviews yet — be the first.