Jordan, Part 2: Jerash and Umm Qais (Gadara)

I pulled water from a 3000 year-old Moabite well in the basement of a Catholic Church. At that same church I listened to a mass spoken in Arabic. In every village, town and city we heard the Mosques calling Muslims to prayer, the sound of Salat echoing out through valleys and off hillsides. I observed the twinkling lights of Israel from across the Dead Sea, and took in views of the Holy Land from atop Mt Nebo. At the Baptismal site of Jesus, the River Jordan is just five metres wide, the border delineated by a thin rope floating on the river's surface. On the Israeli side a group from the Greek Orthodox church were carrying out a religious service with olive branches and holy water from the river, on the Jordanian side, a single soldier rested in the shade, rifle by his side. From Roman ruins to Crusader castles, from roadside stalls selling figs and remote cafes on back roads (where a mobile phone and Google translate was the only means of communication)- everywhere we went and from everyone we met, the common refrain was, "Welcome to Jordan."

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Jerash is an extensive site, containing some of the best examples of Roman masonry and stone vaults in the entirety of the Roman Empire. The area has recorded human history since the Neolithic age. As a city of significance in the ancient world, Greek inscriptions reveal Jerash's Hellenistic history dating back to the 2nd century when it was occupied by veterans of Alexander the Great's army. The Romans arrived in 63BC and Jerash was annexed by the Roman province of Syria.

Hadrian's Arch

This beautiful Greco-Roman city of wide colonnaded streets, temples and amphitheatres flourished until the mid Eighth Century BC when the powerful 749 Galilee earthquake destroyed much of it. It crumbled further when the 847 Damascus earthquake struck.

Re-inhabited, it became a centre for ceramics in the Early and Middle Muslim periods, though the city suffered more damage in the Crusade period. Throughout its incredibly varied history, Jerash has been occupied by Christians, Muslims, and Jewish settlers, for the most part cohabiting in peace. Excavation is ongoing.

Ampitheatre

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Leaving Jerash behind, we drove further north to quickly stop by the ruins of the 12th Century Muslim castle of Ajloun, built by one of Saladin's generals. It sits high on a hilltop on the land of Jabal Ajlun, named after the Bedouin tribe that captured the area in the 12th Century. The castle commanded the fertile land below, containing three wadis that are directed towards the Jordan River Valley. From the highest point of the ruins it is possible to look across the Jordan Valley in all directions to Lake Tiberius (The Sea of Galilee in the Bible), Jerusalem, and to the north, Syria and Lebanon.

From its strategic position high above the valley, Ajloun Castle was an important link in the communication system connecting major cities of the region, including Damascus, Baghdad and Cairo. From here postal communications were sent out via horses and carrier pigeons. It was also one of several citadels that could issue fire signals in the black of night that would reach as far away as the Euphrates River to the East and The Nile to the west.

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The remarkable thing about Jordan was the depth and breadth of human experience, past and present,

that it contains. This is especially emphasised given the proximity to places such as Syria, Israeli-occupied Palestine, and Iraq. Much like the physical ancient roads of the Roman and Nabatean Empires, it feels like Jordan contains a more metaphorical cultural crossroads where nearly all of recorded human history has passed through or is linked in some way or another. It speaks of a time when the boundaries of religion and culture and race all met, became intertwined, and for the past 2000 years has failed to be successfully or peacefully disentangled. I really got a sense of how the significance of 'place' can be the catalyst for so much... 

The myriad of human experience is especially poignant at Umm Qais, where Jordan meets Israel, Syria and Lebanon. As you stand at the ancient hilltop ruins of Gadara, Syria is so close, just across the narrow Jordan valley. Damascus is a mere 100km, as the crow flies.

Through the haze is Syria and Lebanon, across the valley 
to the left is Israel, and the hills bathed in sunlight 
to the right is Syria. So close!

It is at Umm Qais that Palestinian immigrants and refugees, who were expelled or fled following the creation of the Israeli state, come to look back over their former homeland.

Gadara was founded by the Ptolemies as a frontier station on the border to the Seleucid Empire. The Seleucids conquered the city in 218BC, and then a century later it was seized by the Jewish Hasmoneans. When the Roman General Pompey instated order throughout Syria in 63BC he had Gadara rebuilt as a personal favour to a Gadarene freedman. Roman rule saw the area flourish, especially post-annexation of the Nabatean Empire in 106AD. It became a sort of pleasure city for Romans; poetry, philosophy and theatre drew citizens to Gadara from across the Roman Empire.

Golan Heights and into Syria

In the haze below is the Sea of Galilee, where the Bible cites as the place Jesus carried out many of his miracles: turning water into wine, walking on water, instructing fishermen to cast their nets over the other side of their boat etc. It is also the body of water said to have been parted by Moses.

As you stand looking out over some of the Holiest places in the Christian world, there is an inscription of the words of ancient philosopher Albiouss (355AD), a citizen from Gadara. They are the words he had inscribed on his own gravestone:

"Whoever is passing through here... The way you are now
I was... 
The way I am now
You shall be... 
Enjoy life because you are gone"

It felt quite special to be there as dusk approached; the hills glowed in the warm light of the sinking sun, the haze had a soft golden-pink quality to it. It was the perfect time of day to take in everything about this place. Just the geography of where I was standing in the world blew my mind a little, let alone the religious significance and all that has stemmed from that in recent history.


[If you visit Gadara, do make sure that you take your passport with you. Given its proximity to the Syrian border, there is a military checkpoint that you need to go through when you leave the site. Slightly unnerving, especially when the soldier checking our passports thought that I might try to take photos of the checkpoint- I wasn't, my camera was just on my lap- but nothing to worry about.]


Kate



I'll cover "Bethany beyond the Jordan" and The Dead Sea in the next post.