Jordan ~ The Roman City of Jerash

I'm usually terrible about going through my photos

right after a trip. I decided to share with you one of

the favorite sites I saw in Jordan.

It's a little known site and city called Jerash. It's an

ancient Roman city that has been partially rebuilt using

the original stones from the city. Half of Jerash is the

old Roman city and the other half is "New" Jerash where

all of its citizens live.

As always, there was renovation work being done, but it

didn't take away from the grandness of the grand gate

of the old city.

As it had been a rainy and stormy day, it was lucky that

the rain started to clear just as we arrived. Stormy weather

always make for dramatic pictures. It's my favorite kind of

weather to take photos in - right after the clearing of a storm.

The full circle of columns is quite an awesome sight.

Hear the sun is peaking out.

Blue skies always make a beautiful backdrop. This is the

stage of a small Roman theater. The acoustics of this

place are amazing.

Here's a closer look at that stone work.

The site is quite a large one as you can see.

I just love the way the photo shows the storm in the

background with the shining bright in the foreground.

How's this for grandness. Pillars of a

temple built for one of the Roman gods.



At the base of one of those huge pillars is a spoon stuck in

it. The spoon is to illustrate that the pillars are free standing

without the use of mortar or other materials to adhese the

huge stones together. It's really amazing that it's all just a

balancing act! The spoon illustrates this because it shows

the movement in the pillars. As the pillars move, the spoon

moves as well.

This is the entrance to that grand temple with all of the columns.

It's a great entrance that frames the new city of Jerash.

Can you imagine that this used to be the main promenade

of this city? Imagine living in a bustling city of shops and

traders with this kind of grandeur.

This shows how wide the promenade was.

What I learned that was surprising about Jordan was

that their money is worth as much as the Euro. Imagine

my shock when exchanging my little American dollars.

I suppose my surprise came from the fact that Jordan

does not have huge industries and if you can believe,

the price of their gas (petrol) is more expensive than ours

is even though they import it from the neighboring Saudis.

This is the royal family of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

Queen Rania and her family. They are an extremely good looking

family. Although the King is the ruling party, Jordan's queens have

traditionally been more famous starting with the last Queen of Jordan ~

Queen Noor. The royal family is immensely popular in Jordan and you

can see family photos of them everywhere. The king has followed in

his father's footsteps by trying to modernize Jordan to give a better life

to their people. More on the royal family of Jordan in the next installment

of my trip.

If you ever get the chance to visit

Jordan, Jerash is a must-see place.