Friday, November 14, 2008

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.

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