The Olive Branch Jerash

La antigua ciudad de Jerash, siempre ha estado ocupada por asentamientos humanos, desde hace más de 6.500 años. Conquistada por el General Pompeyo en el año 63 aC, cayó bajo dominio romano y fue una de las diez grandes ciudades romanas, la Decápolis.La ciudad vivió su época dorada durante el dominio romano, durante el cual se conocía como Gerasa y hoy en día se considera una de las ciudades romanas mejor conservadas de todo el mundo ...

I traveled around northern Jordan with Mohammed, a Jordanian fella who also works at my uni and shared the arduous bus ride from Saudi with me!

We looked around Jerash, the 2000 year old, Roman ruin. It's an almost intact Roman city, making it one of the largest and most well-preserved location of Roman architecture. Very lovely, though the Roman gladiator re-enactment (with Jordanians dressed as Romans) looked like ...

The tour is done, but there are 7 of us who have an extra day in Amman before we fly home. We decided to get two taxis and drive 45 mins north of Amman to Jerash. Jerash is another ancient Roman town. They say it's a highlight of Jordan but I was skeptical since it wasn't included in the tour. I figured if if was really so amazing it would have been included because there was surely time on the lame last day of the tour.

But ...

... to visit the renowned historic roman ruins. While we recognized the change of environment from desert dust to an more attractive mediteranean olive-tree countryside in low hills reminding to me rather in greece than in Jordan, we also recognized the unlucky organization to sell the entry tickets at the sight of that historic place. Our decition: Being tired of ruins and stones organized like in a giant puzzle, we just skipped the visit and continued without...

... challenge, but the scenery was beautiful, with rolling hills covered in trees and wildflowers. I made Danny pull over so I could take photos of a hill dotted with poppies. We reached Iraq al Amir, parked the car on the side of the road and walked down through long grass and green stalks of wheat to the ruin in the middle of a green valley. Poppies sprang from between the ancient stones, and we marvelled at this fairytale castle in the middle of ...

Matt has enjoyed himself with relaxing on Sunday and then on Monday taking a 5 mile hike around Amman. He didn't get home till 6:30ish so I just made dinner and had Anita up. Today I was "sick" and slept in till 9:30!  For the last two days, life has been a little crazy.  After getting ready, we went with a parent to the Desert Rose olive wood factory.  I  needed to pick up an order and this way he could see the operation.  It was pretty cool but as ...

I didn't bother setting my alarm today as I knew I only had to visit Jerash and it would only take a half day or so. I left the Sydney hotel and headed over to Cliff hostel which is alot better and handed over my first washing off my trip. It cost me 3 dina to get it washed and I am in need of some clean clothes. I headed over to the Champion office to get my bus ticket for Damascus. It only cost me 8 dina which is a bargain and the buses seem nice and modern so no ...

Didn't do too much after getting back from the Dead Sea yesterday. Just chilled out at the hotel and got some food. Really simple foot but delicious. Felt pretty tired even though I spent most of the day sitting on my backside or floating on the water. Got an early night but a bad nights sleep. My mattress is very thin and supported by cardboard at the bottom in between ...

The next day we visited Jerash, "the Pompeii of the Middle East", which is one of the most important and best preserved Roman cities and Mt. Nebo, the site where Moses was given a view of the promised land and the site where he is buried; Ajlun Castle - a castle built to protect the land against the Christian crusaders.