Antiquities of the Jews, or the city of Jerash

Traveling to Jordan, is simply unforgivable not to visit one of the tourist centers of the region city of Jerash. According to historians at this point people are already live whiter than 6500 years. In view of this ancient city is rich with many archeological sites that stand out not only for its history, but also the appearance of the surviving ruins.

However, this is a historic splendor quite a long time was hidden under a layer of sand and soil, as in the mid-sixteenth century, the entire city of Jerash was destroyed by a strong earthquake well as a result of which all the inhabitants of the city are not lost as a result of this natural disaster, abandoned him. And the city was brought sand storms and earth, so that in the early twentieth century, the area looks like a hilly plain.

In this state, the town was until the moment when the seventy years ago, a group of German and Jordanian archaeologists started to excavate this ancient city. A modern Jerash, located just east of the ancient sites and starts right behind the ramparts of the old city.

Many historians believe that the first settlers of Jerash and its founders were great soldiers of Alexander the Great. Thus, the earliest documented mention of Jerash belong to the second century BC, in his work «Antiquities of the Jews» by Josephus Flavius, where Jerash is mentioned, as some trade center, the crafts and the presence of a number of places of worship.

However, the favorable location of the city and had a negative side. Jerash for all its long history, has repeatedly passed from hand to hand, changing not only their owners, but also religious preferences.