Jerash

March 15, 2025

By Hector Gonzalez

March 29^th, 2025

What better way to observe the Ides of March than to go to a Roman ruin? Jerash is about an hour north of Amman. The Romans called it Gerasa and it may have been founded by Alexander the Great. The emperor Hadrian visited it in person at one point in time. And then the whole thing was destroyed by an earthquake in the 700s. That's all the history that matters. It was a lovely spring day when we visited; it was during Ramadan but nobody minded us eating and drinking.

Hadrian's arch, I think. I was charmed by the plants growing out of the ruins.

The Hippodrome. I feel like they could still hosts concerts there. Although there is a modern neighborhood right next door that might be annoyed by the sound.

The big round plaza is beautiful and bigger than it looks. Hard to imagine that Latin was spoken there once (or more probably Greek).

The theater is awesome. There was a sort of performance going on when we came. Those top seats are really high up there.

Julian being thoughtful. Actually it was just an unusually hot day, but still, he looked thoughtful.

There was a real poetry in these old stones and the vegetation that's grown around them.

The water wheel in the third picture is said to be the world's oldest known machine (though this is a reproduction because obviously the wooden parts would have rotted away over the last 2500 years). I read about what it was used for but I forgot so I can't tell you.

This may or may not be our last trip in Jordan, but Jordan will definitely be our last trip with USAID. We're proud of the work we've done (almost all the signs in Jerash have little USAID logos in the corner, now a relic from a different time, like the ruins themselves). And we are very grateful that we were able to give our children these experiences (and hell, we gave ourselves these experiences, too). We'll always have these memories to treasure, but we know that will make plenty more memories in the years to come.