Jerash

Hadrian's Arch in Jerash

During the first and second centuries A.D. Jerash hit its peak!  They built the massive arch above for the emperor Hadrian.  Hadrian had his fair share of arches built in his honor, as we saw another in Antalya,Turkey!  Jerash had 800,000 people living within its walls at one point, but began its decline in the seventh century.

 

We spent some time wandering in the city, getting a feel for what it might have been like to live there.  The consensus: a pretty nice place but a few more shade trees would have been nice!

The Cardo - the main road in Jerash that runs north south

Looking up at us and some columns in Jerash

As we walked toward some of the tallest and most well-preserved columns a young kid offered to show us how they can sway.  Really?  He had a spoon that he stuck in one of the grooves.  As he let go of the spoon we couldn't actually see the column swaying, but we could see the spoon continuing to move for a long time under the slight movement of the column.  It was a cool visual that helped us understand why these columns survived some terrible earthquakes in the area including one in the eighth century.  The kid also took the photo above from below!