Jerash
It was founded by the successors of Alexander the Great and built for the most part between the end of the 1st century B.C. and the 2nd century AD, the city had its maximum splendor after its incorporation into the domains of Rome. It occupied a key location on the Road of Kings, a vitally important trade route linking the Nile to the Euphrates across the Sinai Peninsula and the Mediterranean Levant. It is the second most visited destination in the country after Petra. It was hidden for centuries under the desert sand. Located on the hills of the biblical Gilead, it is one of the 10 cities that made up the Decapolis, the set of commercial cities that stretched on the eastern border of the Roman Empire, in the territories currently occupied by Jordan, Syria, Israel and Palestine. It is the most important and best preserved Roman city in the Middle East, also called the "Pompeii of the East". It has been inhabited by different civilizations for more than 6,500 years.
Among its monuments, the following stand out:
- Hadrian's Arch: Triumph Arch built to celebrate the visit of the emperor in 129 AD. and honor the architect of the prosperity that Jerash enjoyed during his reign.
- Hippodrome: Huge stadium 245 meters long and 52 meters wide. wide and a capacity for 15,000 spectators, who in those days could watch chariot races and other sports. It is the largest building in the complex.
- Oval Plaza: Built in the 1st century AD, it connected the Temple of Zeus with the main avenue. This spacious square, paved with the original stones, is surrounded by a wide sidewalk and a set of Ionic columns from the 1st century AD.
- Jerash Theatres: In Jerash there are two theaters. The largest, the one in the South, with capacity for 3,500 spectators, has extraordinary acoustics, amplified by the niches at the base of the podium, which act as a sounding board. The Northern one, built in AD 165, originally had only 14 rows of seats and was used for small performances, city council meetings, etc. Years later, its size doubled until it reached its current capacity, a capacity of 1,600 people. The theater fell into disuse in the 5th century and many of its stones were extracted to build other buildings.