Jawdropping Jerash

Amazing. Astounding. Fantastic. Stupendous. Marvelous. Gorgeous. Beautiful. Have you noticed that those words and others of the sort seem to populate my posts? That's because everything we saw fit those parameters.

Jerash was even more so. 

Jerash is said to be the largest Roman ruin still in existence outside of Rome. I'm not sure any of us had ever heard of Jerash before our arrival, and none of us expected to see anything of its size . . . except perhaps Petra. This was beyond our imagining.

This is a video of Bedouin Police playing bagpipes and drums in the theatre at Jerash. 

When we first entered the ruins via Hadrian's Arch, I was pretty impressed already.

You can gauge the size of the arch by the size of the people standing inside it.

You could start to believe that I was fascinated with the graceful arches of Jerash, and you'd be right. I also loved the play of light on the limestone contrasted with the brilliant blue of the sky.

Modern Jerash in plain view behind ancient Jerash. This is so typically Jordan, I found.

A look down the Cardo (main street) from the forum area

Beautiful column detail

This gives you an idea of the expanse of Jerash. It just kept going and going and going . . .
 we'd turn corners, and there'd be even more

A fallen arch

Column detail in the forum

Columns through the pepper tree branches

Bedouin Police in the theatre in Jerash

Theatre seats.  These are steeper than they look, and I worried about getting back down after
I went partway up. But I made it (obviously).

The stage in the Jerash theatre

The earthquake of 749 AD which devastated Beit She'an also toppled Jerash. 

Here is a link to a video which gives a pretty good view of the Jerash ruins. And here is a link to a map of Jerash, illustrating the layout of the ruins.