Day 5: Ajloun Castle, and Jerash

Gadara

Today we spent the day among some truly spectacular ruins.  We started by touring the ancient Greco-Roman city of Gadara.  This city is unique from the other ones we have seen because much of it was carved out of black basalt.  It gave these pillars a very distinctive look.

Later we gathered in the amphitheater and Rhianne stood at centre stage and sang for us.  The acoustics were incredible.  Then we all gathered at the base and sang Luther's famous hymn, "A Mighty Fortress."  We were reminded that while these stones that have lasted thousands of years, we have a greater stone, a cornerstone, Jesus, on whom we are all built into the Church of Christ.

This is also the place where Jesus drove some demons out of a couple men and allowed the evil spirits to enter into a heard of pigs.  This event took place on the hill which is in the right centre of this picture.  The pigs then ran into the sea of Galilee and drown.  We could see a bit of the sea from here, but in the photo it is a bit hazy.  You will find it just to the left of the hill.  You can read about this story in Matthew 8:28-34.

Ajloun Castle

 We then traveled south to Ajloun Castle, an impressive 12^th century fortress.  It was never engaged in battle, but it was well prepared for it.  The rooms and the levels of this castle seemed endless, and we had a great time exploring it and learning more about how a medieval castle functioned.

Jerash

 We ended the day at Jerash.  You would think that by this point in the day one would tire of viewing ruins, but the ruins of Jerash are simply stunning.  Jerash is the best preserved Roman city of Jesus’ era.  It gives us the best understanding of what the cities looked like that the Roman super power was building.  The picture above is one of the gates to the city and it is breathtaking for visitors to walk through.

Everytime we turned a corner we found more fascinating stonework.  Many of the columns survived the massive earthquake that destroyed much of the Middle East in 749 A.D.  There is a lot to see here, but what is truly incredible is that only a small portion of the ancient city has been excavated.  The majority of it is still covered by layers of sand and rubble.  Tomorrow we head into the desert for and travel through Wadi Rum in a jeep convoy.