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| Hadrian's gate - built to commemorate his visit in 130 CE |
This morning we traveled to the ancient Greco-Roman city of Jerash near Amman. The city was probably founded by Alexander the Great or one of his general as a settlement for his ex-soldiers in 331 BCE. It was one of the Decapolis.
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| The South Theatre |
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| detail of grapes, pine and pomegranate |
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| The oval shaped central forum |
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| A contemporary performance in the theatre |
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| A Jordanian Bagpiper |
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| Cross street - across the Cardo |
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| Byzantine Church mosaic floor |
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| Thermal Baths - built by Bishop Placus c 451 CE |
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| Capitals |
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| The temple of Artemis |
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| Steps up to the temple of Artemis |
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| The Cardo - central street |
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| fallen decorations from the colonnade. |
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| The Cathedral built by Bishop Placus recycling bits of Artemis' temple |
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| The entrance to the Cathedral |
It flourished and grew, begin added to by the emperors Trajan and Hadrian. Overrun by the Persians the city went into a decline but it grew under the Umayyad dynasty. It finally was destroyed by and earthquake in 749 CE.
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| The Marcellum or food market |
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| A lion in the food market |
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| A calf in the food market - a butcher's stall? |
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| a local weed - model for the capitals |
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| detail of a capital |
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| Medusa |
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| The Cardo - the main street |
After lunch we headed back to the border, crossing at Sheik Hussein Border. It took us an hour and a half to complete the formalities. This included on the Jordanian side at least three separate checks of our passports, scanning of our bags, several stamps, a ride in a shuttle bus to the Israeli side. The bus was examined underneath, our bags were scanned (as we were), our passports examined and we were interrogated about our trip to Jordan and who we were and where we had been. The immigration man there, good humouredly, tried to trip me up by saying New Zealand was one island and part of Australia wasn't it? At least I think it was a trick... After crossing, and having an ice-cream we boarded yet another bus for the trip back to Jerusalem. The trip was a couple of hours. We crossed closer to Galilee than Jerusalem.
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