Romans, Ruins Everywhere

Jordan

There are lots of places with evidence of the Roman and Byzantine periods. They seem to be more frequent than the Islamic or Umayyad artefacts, actually. At least in Jordan.

From the many such places two stand out in particular, Jerash with its well preserved Roman city and Madaba with its amazing mosaics.

Jerash
I visited Jerash on a day trip from Amman. Stressed by the presence of tourist groups I started out early and then tried to stay ahead of or behind the crowds. The weather didn't seem to cooperate at first, as there were dark clouds gathering and the sun barely twinkling from time to time, but things worked out well. The clouds were actually perfect as they added the dramatic effect to my pictures. And Jerash was absolutely lovely.

There are collonnaded streets, columns and capitels all over. There's an amazing unique oval plaza bordered by an array of columns welcoming you after you passed through the huge Roman entrance gates. The remains of Byzantine churches delight you with some beautiful mosaics. Then there's the fantastic Temple of Artemis, dominating over the whole area. Truly stunning!
And the two amphitheatres which have undergone restauration are in wonderful shape and inviting you to sit and rest and think about past and present. There's even a hippodrome where chariot race shows are running daily for the tourists.

You can walk around and explore things on your own as there are hundreds of stones and pieces of columns and capitels lying around. There's room to explore and plenty of room to find a shady spot and rest away from the crowds. I enjoyed Jerash immensely.

Madaba
The town of Madaba is the biggest Christian community in Jordan. It is also a place mentioned several times in the New Testament. There are lots of churches here, some very very old. Apparently any kind of digging reveals new artefacts and treasures. Among the latter there are some stunning mosaics, the most famous being the mosaic map of the Middle East in the St. George church. Though incomplete, it presents a fairly accurate map of the area with Jerusalem extremely detailed and beautifully represented by a cluster of buildings. The Nile Delta and Mt Sinai, the Jordan River and Dead Sea and many other places are also represented.
The other mosaics are equally beautiful scattered around town.

Umm-Ar-Rasas
The place is listed as a heritage site by Unesco. It houses not only the ruins of an entire Roman town, but also a unique and stunning mosaic, a great work of art and of great historical value with its depictions of several cities.
I arrived there early in the morning with the 7 am bus which actually brings the teachers from Madaba to the village. The ruins, like a dump of rubble, are surrounded by a fence, but there's no sign anywhere to be seen. After escaping from the furiously barking dogs I walked around the other way and found the entrance.

Obviously the site is about to become a facelift, the visitor's centre being brand new and not yet functional. Therefore, I headed to the ruins freely and was in for a huge surprise. The place looked as if an earthquake had levelled down everything except for a few arches which were sticking out from the ground or from under the rubble. It was simply incredible.
I could walk around and explore and that gave me a very strange yet satisfying feeling. I was excited to discover details, carvings, arches at almost every step as I was walking over and around the stones. Basically every stone was a building stone. I was stepping over and on history, so to speak. It was unbelievable. And I had the place all to myself for more than 2 hours.
Eventually I made my way to the big shelter covering the precious mosaic only to discover that there was no mosaic. A couple of workers were busy nearby and there were clear signs of work in progress in the area. The floor of the church was covered with sand and I knew what that meant. The mosaics were there, not gone, but they were covered for protection.

However, it was my lucky day! Groups started to show up - it was past 10am by now! - and an Italian lady with her guide/driver. The latter knew better and had asked for permission to show the lady the mosaics. Hence, armed with a piece of cardboard he descended from the ramp onto the basilica's floor and started scraping away the sand and revealing the mosaics beneath. Unbelievable!
It was unbelievable in every sense. First, the mosaics beneath were so beautiful. Then, to get the permission to simply step down there and show them to someone, where else would that be possible? And last but not least the group of tourists who simply started asking for more, then descended (some of them) and started walking over the mosaics to take pictures as if they were their bathroom tiles or something.
At least before leaving the mosaics were covered again. And I have to admit that I took some pictures, too. But I could not step on the uncovered mosaic. It felt like a sacrilege to me.
Roberta, the Italian lady, had mercy with me and did not leave me there on the roadside waiting for the bus. It would have taken me a few hours :-) She is a seasoned traveller and we ended up spending the afternoon together hitchhiking to Mukawir and then back to Madaba. The views of the Dead Sea from the hilltop where Herod's Castle once stood were not the best that day as a storm was brewing up and the sky was dark and visibilty was poor. There's still stuff left to see next time ...