Jerash: Ancient Roman City and the Best Preserved Roman Ruins outside of Italy

In addition to Petra, Jordan also has a wealth of other world-class attractions, most notable the Roman ruin of Jerash, and the medieval fortress-castles which scattered around the hills and deserts of northern Jordan.

The best time to visit Jerash is early in the year or from November onwards. The ruins of Jerash is situated right in the centre of modern Jerash. Frequent buses connect Jerash to Amman. Alternatively, all hotels and guest houses in Jordan will be able to offer visitors private tours to Jerash at a reasonable price.

The ruins of Jerash are considered by many as the most extensive and best preserved Roman ruins in the world outside of Rome. In terms of size and scale of the already excavated site, Jerash is probably bigger than Ephesus in Turkey.

A short trip to Jordan Part 2: The Baptism Site and the Jordan River

In international news headlines, the name 'West Bank' appears at such alarming frequency that one could be forgiven for thinking that the Jordan is a huge and mighty river, much like the legendary Euphrates and Tigris. In fact, this could not have been further away from the truth.

The small muddy stream in the photo above is the internationally renown Jordan River. To the left of the muddy pool of water is the notorious West Bank, currently occupied by Israel. To the right of the river is the East Bank, which lies within Jordan. Hence this small stream also serves as de facto international border between the two states.

It was dry season when I visited the Baptism Site. I was not impressed at all at the first sight. The more I look at it, the more I come to realise that a large part of the Middle East conflict is about  nothing but ideology.

Short Trip to Jordan Part 1: On the Other Side of the Holy Land - Mount Nebo

The trip to Jordan was a last-minute decision. A visit to Petra has long been on the agenda, but I did not rank it as a top priority until I came across a special offer by Turkish Airlines from Istanbul to Amman. 

As I had only 10 day's time to visit the country, I decided to stay in Madaba instead of Amman, to give myself one whole day's time to visit the holy sites and tourist attractions in the East Bank of the Jordan River - Mount Nebo, the Baptism Site, the Mozaic City of Madaba, and the Dead Sea. Every guesthouse in Madaba will be able to provide their guests with convenient day trips to nearby sights. The guesthouse I stayed at in Madaba help me find two other travellers from a nearby hotel to share a car with me, which allowed me to save up quite a bit of money.

 

 

Going up Mount Nebo

This ridge is about 20 minutes away by car from Madaba. According to the Bible, Mount Nebo is the place where Moses was allowed by God to take a look at the Promised Land. It is also the place where it is believed that Moses had been buried. 

Nowadays Mount Nebo is a huge tourist attraction in Jordan, drawing millions of pilgrims and secular visitors like me every year. The place has been declared a Holy Site by Christians, although pilgrims of all faith, including Muslims, flock to the site to pay their respect as well.

There is no official ticket booth on Mount Nebo. Instead some middle-age men sitting near the entrance chat away in the shade while tearing out a ticket from the booklet. Each person pays 1JD (about 1 Euro) for entrance to the Holy Place. it is very cheap when the entrance fee to the fabled lost city down in the south is more than 23 JD for a one-day pass.