JERASH

“The teachers told us, the Romans built this place

They built a wall and a temple, an edge of the empire

Garrison town,

They lived and they died, they prayed to their gods

But the stone gods did not make a sound

And their empire crumbled, 'til all that was left

Were the stones the workmen found” – Sting

I knew I wanted to visit Jordan to see Petra, and of course I knew what to expect when we visited Jerusalem.  What I didn’t realize before our trip was some of the other amazing sites in Jordan.  This final post (part #3) about our recent trip, will be focused on Jerash, but may also include a few other cool sites we enjoyed.

This first photo wasn’t taken in Jerash, but I thought it was a cool one to share.  It is from some Roman ruins at Umm Qais.  Some believe it may have been the site (or near it) mentioned in the gospels where Christ casts the evil spirits out of a man called Legion and the spirits then possess the bodies of pigs which then jump off a cliff into the sea (or something like that ;).  From the photo, you can see Israel, the Sea of Gallilee, the Golan Heights, and possibly in the distance to the right, Syria.  What you don’t see are any pigs… I’m guessing they avoid this place now.

We also got to explore the very cool Ajlun Castle.  It was built by Arabs under the command of Saladin to protect the country against attacks from the crusaders.  I would not want to be dodging the ammunition Yvonne is holding as it was catapulted from behind walls 10 ft. thick.

One of the main attractions of almost everything in Jordan was that we were pretty much free to explore (climb on) about anything we wanted.  Often in the US you are “encouraged” to enjoy something from a distance or from behind a gate or glass… Jerash was a little more hands on.

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