Jerash Ancient City Ruins — Attraction in Jerash

Access to the Jerash ancient city ruins is granted through the Jordan Pass so I stopped there as part of a day trip prior to visiting Ajloun Castle. The ancient city is one of the best preserved Roman cities outside of Italy and it has been reconstructed well using the original blocks. There are towering columns, great temples and a vast hippodrome which instill within you the grandeur of the ancient city. However, as with many sites in Jordan, it suffers from neglect and pesky vendors. There is a lot of trash and some areas are particularly littered with refuse. There are locals who harass tourists to solicit business and who don't seem to understand the word 'no'. There were only a few locals who seemed to add value to the place: the man demonstrating his home-made reed instruments with a reserved, non-invasive and respectful approach to sales (we bought two instruments); the bagpipe players at the theatre; and, to a lesser extent, a vendor who showed us photos of what the city once looked like, and another vendor who showed us, with the aid of a spoon, how one of the columns moved with the application of a little force. On the other hand, one vendor really ticked me off as he followed us from area to area making redundant comments about the hippodrome and muttering something like 'mama no baba no' while begging for money to feed his children of dubious existence. In summary, it is definitely worth visiting, and you could easily spend 2-3 hours here, but do be ready for some...

What a splendid time we spent here learning about such rich history of Jerash! We visited in late September .. the sun was scorching but the wind was rather pleasant.. hence it was easy for us to complete the entire trail.. Best part was the North Theatre where we clicked umpteen number of photos. The place was built in such fashion that it was windy for the attendees at the theatre from all sides and the stage was perfectly placed and visible from all three sides. We utilised our Jordan Pass...

Jerash (ancient name - Gerasa) - one of the three great Roman cities (along with Petra and Palmyra, located in the Syrian desert). Its colonnaded streets, exquisite oval forum, three theatres, two temples and 15 early Byzantine churches make such a stunning impression that the city is called Eastern Pompeii.

Many well-preserved monuments make Jerash unique, but it remains difficult to access and...