Gerasa - Jerash
Ancient Roman Decapolis
!" # $ %& # '( $ ) *') + & , !%# -.
erasa is truly an overwhelming site and and Levant about 2,000 years ago Gerasa was Gone of the most important and best influenced in it’s beginnings by Hellenistic and preserved Roman cities in the Near East. With later dominated by Roman culture, architecture 25,000 inhabitants in the 2nd century AD it was and politics. The influences of Ptolemy Egypt, an important center of Roman life, trade and Hasmonian Palestine and Seleucid Syria were politics. It was also one of the ten members of very short lived and left little traces. Levant’s free city federation called Decapolis. Nevertheless the Nabataean rule of Damascus Gerasa was also called in antiquity Antioch on from 84-72BC and it’s dominating trading activities the Chrysorhoas, meaning "Golden River", which over the next 200 years left many inscriptions and was running right through the middle of Gerasa, a temple dedicated to their main deity Dushara. with all its public buildings on the west river bank In Byzantine times the Gerasa cathedral was and residential areas on the east. Please be erected on it’s ancient site. aware that Antioch on the Orontes was another important capital at the time further north in Syria. But let’s step back and have a quick look at the early history of Gerasa.
Like any other town or city in the Near East
¡ ¢ £ ¤ ¥ ¦ ¢ £ ¤ § ¢ ¨ ¢ © ¢ ¨ § ¨ ¢ £
0 1 2 3 4 3 4 5 6 3 2 5 7 3 6 8 5 9 4 5 6 3 2 5 7 3 6 8 5 7 6 :; 6 < 7 : 1 1 = 5 > : ? = 5 @ 6 : 6 A 5 5 B 3 2 6 B A 5 7
FirstFi rs t NeNeolithicol it hi c trtracesaces ddateat e babackck 33334BC4B C extendedex te nd ed thet he villagev il la ge intoi nt o a as untouchable.u nt ou ch ab le BButut tthishi s ho hopepe to 6,000BC and Bronze and Iron town. In 301BC Egyptian Ptolemy was short lived as Gerasa was Age settlement remains from II took control of Philadelphia, conquered by Hasmonian high 3,200-1,200BC were found today’s Amman, and converted it priest and ruler of Jerusalem around one of the Gerasa springs. into a Hellenistic city. Alexander Jannaeus who was in There is also proof of Ammonite power between 102-76 BC. Gerasa being only 48km away tribes in the area and the practice also profited from this upswing. Different from Nabataean of the pagan Baal Shamin cult. Later during the rule of Seleucid Petra and Palmyra, Gerasa was But there is no proven settlement King Antiochus IV from 175- not involved in any wars, nor for over 400 years after 7th 164BC the town seems to have are there any reports of huge century BC until Hellenistic times. become more of a city. military activities and aspirations So who were the real founders of territorial expansion, nor the The first mention of Gerasa in and creators of the impressive existence of a strong Gerasa army. ancient sources was by Semitic ruins of Gerasa? historian Flavius Josephus who The regional wars at the time With regards to the founders recorded an interesting story. seemed to be fought in other there are three major players at Theodorus a tyrant ruler of areas far away from Gerasa. With the time, who possibly all shared Philadelphia at the time moved the arrival of the Roman Emperor some of the glory. First there his treasure to the Zeus temple Pompey in the Near East in 63BC was Greek Alexander the Great in close by Gerasa, as this temple every thing changed.
and his General Perdiccas, who in was so holy a place and considered
CB D 2 1 B 3 E 5 F 7 3 5 G @ : 5 ; ? 3 4 2 6 2 5 1 H 6 : @ : 6 I 6 J 7 1 F 3 4 @ 6 2 3 1 D G 6 ?B K 1 F : 5 H 6 2 > / Gerasa became part of the road network, linking Gerasa slope an impressively over 20m Roman Province Syria and with the other regional centers high and elaborately decorated the famous peace treaty "Pax of Philadelphia, Pella, Dion and triple arched gate I have not seen Romana" created enormous Bosra and connecting Gerasa to before. It’s 11m tall and 6m wide growth in trade and revenue for the rest of the important trading double winged central gate was Gerasa. centers and ports in the Near opening the way onto a 500m East. long boulevard flanked by a horse For the next 170 years Gerasa shoe formed hippodrome for accumulated wealth and grew to An ancient merchant traveler to chariot races and other sportive a sizable city, but not yet into Gerasa might have reported this: competitions. what you see today. A 3,500m "After a hot one day long long and 2.5m thick city wall It was offering 15,000 seats journey from Philadelphia on with over 100 towers and 4 city along it’s 250m sides and a new camel back on the paved Roman gates was built between 50-75AD built Via Trajana to Antioch on suburb was to be built in honor and included a city area of the Golden River I knew we were of the visit of Roman Emperor approximately 800,000sqm. approaching this bustling city, as Hadrian, I was told by a passing But a huge drive in Gerasa more and more chariots loaded official I recognized by his fine building activities started around with produce and all kinds of chiton and typical coat he was 106AD when Roman Emperor goods were moving in the same wearing. Trajan conquered Nabataean direction. Different to normal use the Petra. This was supported by the Soon we could see on top of a dedication to Hadrian was
Roman construction of a regional inscribed on the inside facade
M N O PQR S T R PN U O V R WO X U Y SN Z R Q[ L
] ^ _ ` a b c d ` a e f ` ] ^ _ ` a b c d ` a e f ` andan d nonott ththee ououtsidets id e of thet he gateg at e andan d againag ai n repeatedrepe at ed coloredco lo re d frescosfr escos on thet he perimeterper im et er tenemost enemos walls.w al ls on the south gate at the end of the boulevard. In the middle there was a big open air altar on a The south gate was the old entrance I knew, small platform, similar to those Arab altars used directly leading to the unique oval plaza surrounded in Nabataea. I kneeled, prayed and presented my by 160 Ionic columns and with a diameter of 80m offerings of fruit and incense at the foot of the altar this forum plaza was huge. It was filled with well together with many people permanently coming and dressed people standing around talking and buying going. wares from the merchants situated on the side The altar top was reserved for priests performing walks behind the tall columns. various sacrifices during the many holy days spread Women were wearing fine chitons and jewelry over the year. The temple central sanctuary, the cella, demonstrating the wealth of Gerasa inhabitants was reserved for the high priests and contained an matching the impressive public buildings and high immense multicolored statue of Zeus, which I once level of decor on many local temples, various could see through the opening double winged finely theatres and baths, as well as the different type of carved wooden doors, when the priest entered. markets." Thereafter I proceeded to one of the two main "The first duty of every returning traveler was to baths at the end of the colonnaded cardo or main worship the all mighty god father Zeus for having street. There was no other more impressive cardo I arrived save and for future health. Therefore I entered have ever seen anywhere, as a far traveled merchant. through the triple gated entrance hall on the left of the The Gerasa cardo had two huge tetrapylon gates oval forum the most holy place in Gerasa, the temple over 10m high on the crossings of the major of Zeus with it’s court yard measuring 80x35m and side streets and was flanked by official again surrounded buildings, numerous 10m high shops and few colonnades residences of with pilasters i m p o r t a n t
and artfully
] ^ _ ` a b c d ` a e f ` \
h i j k l i m n o p i q r z i { q t w k q r x l o | r x y } r s t u q v w x y v l q v r i q k r families. 800m long and about have to use the money changer in more like a club, than a public 80m wide with over 500 Corinthian the corner, who would have taken bath. It offered me all amenities columns and a drainage system his additional cut. needed after a long trip, such as underneath its massive paving it warm and hot water baths, steam I fully agreed with Romans who took me some while to get there. room, cold water baths and cold for hygiene and other reasons air room. On my way I passed the had since long separated markets macellum, an octagon shaped for different products. Returning The water supply came from the double storey fresh produce to the cardo I stopped at the close Ain Kervan spring. All these market, with various fountain immense double storey domed sections had specific names, basins, from which women choose nymphaeum, a highly decorated such as: apodyterium, vestarium, their live fish for dinner, in the fifty public fountain with many caldarium, frigidarium, loutron, meter wide court yard. niches and statues of gods and tepidarium and praefurnium. dignitaries, to take a fresh sip of After this relaxing experience I I quickly went in and was, as cold water out of the huge basin was now ready to visit the most usual, impressed by the daily supplied with water from a near important building complex in offer and choice of goods and I spring, which was sprayed by lion bought a small quantity of strong Gerasa the Artemis temple. heads creating a refreshing moist smelling black pepper grains air in the afternoon heat. It was necessary to arrive before costing me a fortune of a few sun set at the 34,000sqm temple silver coins. The price of pepper Thereafter I went quickly for the complex to worship Artemis or was higher than that of gold, as west bath, which started to fill up Diana as the Romans called pepper came from India via the in the late afternoon with men to Silk Road and was a rare spice meet and bath jointly to discuss this mother deity and goddess only used by the rich in Rome and last night’s theatre performance of nature, fertility and hunting, a beyond. and city politics. daughter of Zeus and twin sister of Apollo. I was lucky that my Nabataean It was not open to every body, but silver coins depicting King Aretas to a selected number of important I quickly passed the 120m
IV were accepted and I did not members of the city and operated wide double storey shopping
s t u q v p i q r h i j l i m p i q r g arcade and entered through the centrally situated and it is assumed it served more as a bouleuterium, impressive triple gated entrance with 16m high a people’s assembly. colossal columns with drums weighing up to 40 Later it was extended to 1,600 seats and possibly tons. used as an odeum. The stages of both theatres The first temple plaza with an open air altar in the were designed in typical Roman form. The main middle was for normal citizens to worship, but I was south theatre stage included an impressive double allowed to take the monumental 120m wide stairs storey building with a fore leaning roof structure to the upper colonnaded tenemos again with huge and with three columned entrances and four niches dimensions of 160x120m. and various statues. The main temple cella was situated in the center. It is important to note that most public buildings A plaque on the side wall indicated that a Diodoros, were financed or donated by wealth Gerasa citizens. son of Zebedas was the architect and finished this For example a Zabdion and Aristonas donated the part in 28AD. The cella was placed on a 40x23m Zeus temple or parts of it. In the 1st century platform surrounded by 32 columns 13m high, this AD the city was totally redesigned and rebuilt to was twice the heights of my double floored house. typical Roman standards adding many new public During festivities I have seen many times the high buildings, only the Zeus temple was left untouched priests performing holy ceremonies on the temple and therefore it was not in line with the rectangular roof to demonstrate the closeness to higher powers, city block system with the main street running north as well as addressing and reaching them this way. " south. But the glory was not forever and with the This account translated into more modern day demise of the Roman Empire so did Gerasa decline. language is based on information from various Its second lease on life Gerasa experienced with ancient sources and recent research results give us the growing importance of Byzantine. By 350AD a a better picture of the various important buildings in large Christian community started building more Gerasa and how daily life must have been at the time. and more churches in Gerasa over the next 200 years. We also know that Gerasa had an active social life with many performances at the two city With 15 churches Gerasa was different to many amphitheatres. The south theatre had 32 rows other ancient cities in the region as these churches and offered 4,000 numbered seats with VIP marble were well decorated with many mosaics depicting seating and awnings giving shade during day the personified seasons, all sorts of animals, light performances. The smaller later built important persons and typical city scenes. For north theatre had only 800 unknown reasons the cities depicted were mostly s e a t s Egyptian Alexandria and Memphis. The most important church was the combined complex of the so-called cathedral and Theodore church. Both were built as basilicas with three ships behind each other, including atrium, side chapels and narthex. Between them was a court
yard with a famous well and myth around it.
~ Cypriot Bishop Epiphanus described this myth Artemis temple was converted to a fortress and in ancient sources as the well dispensing wine taken and destroyed in 1121AD by Balduin II of during specific annual religious festivities which Jerusalem. were linked by some researches to the fact, that But today Gerasa or modern Jerash is worth the the church was built on the ancient site of the visit and will reward you with impressive partly Nabataean Dushara temple, an Arab main deity rebuilt ruins and excellent views from the top seats linked also to Dionysos the god of wine and drink, of the south theatre high up on the hill side. later also know as Bacchus. Walking down the colonnaded main street still Another important church complex was that of with over 500 Ionic and Corinthian columns in situ the three churches sharing one common structure and all over 10m high gives you the impression of and side walls. All three, dedicated to holy Kosmas the magnitude of Gerasa architecture. and Damian, George, as well as John, were basilicas with 3 ships, sharing one baptisterium, and with numerous excellently crafted mosaics, some of which only survived the Islam destruction of human depictions, because some of the churches had already collapsed in various earthquakes shaking the region from time to time. Other basilicas were those of the 32m long Peter and Paul, that of Bishop Genesis, the so-called church of the prophets, apostles and martyrs, the propylaeum church, plus those of Isaias, Elias, Marie, Soreg, Procopius and the synagogue. The latter was the only Jewish house of worship found
in Gerasa.
¡ ¢ Everything that happened thereafter led to the further decline of once beautiful and vibrant Gerasa. In 614AD the Persians invaded the city, followed in 635AD by the Islamic conquest. As the city has been reduced to a small town or even village by that time only few churches were converted to mosques. During c r u s a d e r times
the