Jordan 2022, part 15 (Jerash, Ajloun)
In order for the worshippers to get to the Temple of Artemis in ancient Gerasa, the present-day Jerash, they had to go through the Propylaeum of the Sanctuary of Artemis that faces the main street, the Cardo, and then to ascend two wide staircases between which there was a flat terrace. Namely, the temple was positioned on an elevation in the middle of the city, above the main street and this must have been a magnificent sight for the worshippers. Today, there are, of course, only the remains of the entire sanctuary, but even they seem remarkable. After my visit to the temple, in January 2022, I headed in the opposite direction, i.e., I started to descend towards the main street. First, from the top of the upper staircase that was originally 120 m wide, I took a photo of that terrace with the remains of an altar and the back side of the Propylaeum at the bottom of the second large staircase.
While I was walking around the terrace, looking back at the Temple of Artemis, I noticed a guy posing for his friend. It was a nice picture, so I took one myself.
As it turned out, these young men were from Argentina, so we chatted a little and exchanged taking of photos.
Then I started to go down the lower staircase towards the Propylaeum of the Sanctuary of Artemis. This staircase, 30 m wide, is truly monumental and it consists of seven flights of stairs consisting of seven steps each with small platforms in-between.
The term “propylaeum” comes from Greek and it means “in front of the gate,” while in architecture it is used to denominate a monumental access to a temple. This one in Jerash, earlier Gerasa, was built around the middle of the 2nd century and it had three openings for the worshippers.
Having walked through the remains of the central passage in the Propylaeum, I got down to the level of the main street in the city, the Cardo, and from there I took some photos of the remains of the portico or the porch that was located between the Propylaeum and the street. This portico was carried by four highest columns and in the next photo it is possible to see on the left one of them the bracket for the architrave placed on the top of a series of lower columns that previously followed the line of the street (I have already written about this architectural element in part 13 of the Jordan travel stories).
Then I ventured among the also interesting ruins right across the street from the entrance into the Sanctuary of Artemis, but before I dealt with these ruins, I continued to admire those that I had already visited. Here I came across a whole group of visitors and so they also appear in the photo below.
For the sake of orientation, they are standing on the east side of the Cardo. On the west side first there are four high columns that were a part of the portico or the porch, then comes the staircase on which the Propylaeum is, etc. As I was standing here taking photos, the clouds kept moving and that only added to the beauty of the old sanctuary’s remains.
Now I could dedicate myself to that other structure among the ruins of which I was standing. This used to be a church called the Propylaeum Church.
First I should actually say that during the Roman period, when the Sanctuary of Artemis was up and running, there used to be a street here that was leading from the east, residential part of the city via a bridge directly to the sanctuary. This street was called the Sacred Way and it represented a ceremonial access to the sanctuary. As the cult of Artemis faded away, only to disappear completely in the end, while paganism gave way to Christianity, there was a need for churches. In the 6th century AD, the Christian population took advantage of the construction material that could be found here, so they built a church right in the middle of the street, using its east-west axis. In other words, the exterior wall of the church’s apse simply “cut” across the street. If you look at the photo above more closely, you will be able to see the remainder of the street in front of the stone doorway that served as the entrance to the church, while a little farther, through the doorway, you can see the wall.
In order to see better that wall of the semi-circular apse, as well as the remains of the naos itself, I walked a little more among the ruins.
And when I turned around with intention to go back to the Cardo, I was again delighted with the view at the Sanctuary of Artemis through the doorway of the former church.
Now I started to go back to the Oval Plaza walking along the Cardo, but I did not get very far, because already the next structure after the Propylaeum was most interesting. It was the Nymphaeum.
Nymphaeum is a monument dedicated to nymphs and this one in Jerash was built around 191 CE and was dedicated specifically to the water nymphs. By this time, the city had already gotten its water supply system, so a drinking fountain this monumental was important in order to cover the population’s daily needs in water.
Originally the lower level was covered by green marble, while the upper one was plastered and then painted. If you look at the photo above a little better and even more so the next photo, you will see that the blind niches in the lower level have holes in the middle. This is where the water was brought and it is presumed that there were statues or lion heads placed here so that it appeared as if they were spouting the water that ran into a basin surrounded on the outside by a relatively low wall. The Byzantines later added a stone laver in front of the wall and on the top of the wall there is a hole in the stone through which the water from the basin poured out into that stone laver.
But, even the currently rather bare Nymphaeum in Jerash, without all those picturesque details, is absolutely spectacular. Suffice to look at the stone plastics that adorn its top.
A little lower, to the left and right from the stone laver, there is another lovely and imaginative detail. Since the water flowed constantly, all the surplus would drain through the holes close to the top of the basin wall into the sewerage system that was built underneath the Cardo street. Oh, yes! Those ancient Romans were quite advanced, for we need to keep in mind that this sewerage system was built some 2000 years ago!
But, let me go back to that lovely and imaginative detail. These are small spherical “basins” filled by the water coming through the holes in the wall from the big basin and then through the holes in those small receiving basins it would drain further into the sewerage.
What is particularly lovely in this case is the way these “basins” are decorated – there are four fish carved in the stone as if kissing one another, while their eyes are in fact the holes for the draining of surplus water. 2000 years ago this functioned. Today, not so much.
And here I practically finished with my sightseeing of the absolutely fantastic archaeological site of Jerash. This was a huge surprise for me, because practically I knew nothing about it before coming here. When talking about Jordan, people usually speak about Petra, but there is SO MUCH to see here that it is absolutely incredible.
As for Jerash, having finished with the rather detailed sightseeing that made me very pleased, now I was fully aware that I was exceptionally thirsty (there was a big bottle of water waiting for me in the car, since I forgot to take it with me, while on the site itself there was no place to buy food and water). So, I walked briskly down the Cardo, soon reaching the Oval Plaza. Notwithstanding the wish and need to get to the parking lot and the car quickly, I could not resist and had to take some more photos of the exceptionally impressive Oval Plaza.
Soon I got to the parking lot, the car and the bottle of water, and once I refreshed myself, I settled comfortably in the car and was ready to move on, for I had a lot of other plans for the day.
The first place to visit was Ajloun Castle. The castle is situated on a hill west of a city of the same name. I was going that way by the car I rented together with a driver. That driver was extremely kind and when we approached the city from the top of an elevation near it, I asked him if he could make a stop which he gladly did.
If you look at the photo above a little better, it is possible to see the remains of Ajloun Castle on the hill in the distance (to the left). Here it is again, but zoomed in:
It was precisely this castle that was my next destination, but when I got there, first I looked at the city again, but this time from the opposite side.
Ajloun has around 200,000 inhabitants and it is nestled between fertile highlands, while the city itself is at the altitude of over 700 m a.s.l. This time, I just drove through the city, but just like in the other parts of Jordan, different forms of tourism are being developed here. Among other things, there is an offer of multi-day walking tours along clearly marked walking paths. This, however, was not in the focus of my interests this time; only Ajloun Castle.
In this place there used to be a Christian monastery. According to a legend, one of the monks at that monastery was called Ajloun and this name survived many centuries by being given to the castle, as well as the settlement that with time turned into the city from the previous photos. In 1184, one of the generals of the famous Muslim military leader and the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty, Saladin, built the castle on the ruins of the monastery. Taking into account the superb position of this hill that renders the perfect view all around, the purpose of building the castle here was, among other things, to control the incursions of the Crusaders. Namely, this entire region was included in the Crusades that were conducted on the territory of the Holy Land (1095-1291) and this impacted to a large degree the construction of some of the castles the remains of which can be seen today in Jordan. In addition to having the military function, the castle also served well to control the trading along the road that connected Damascus and south Jordan and Egypt. It also provided protection for the nearby mining of iron that was of key importance for the production of weaponry.
After the Ayyubids, from the 13th century, the castle was managed by the Mamluks who also expanded it. In 1260, the Mongols destroyed some parts of the castle, but later the Mamluks restored it. In time, these territories, including the castles, fell under the rule of the Ottomans. At the beginning of the 19th century, a Swiss travel writer mentioned that only a family of some 40 members lived here. Two earthquakes, in 1837 and 1927, destroyed the castle to a significant degree, but it has been nicely restored as of lately, while its walls have been consolidated.
The main entrance into the castle used to go along a drawbridge placed over a dry moat and it was guarded by towers and machicolations.
I remember that during a visit to a fort in India I learned about the importance of angles in the construction of the access to a castle or a fort, since that hinders direct charging of the assailants who cannot go straight, but rather it may get crowded at the turns, which facilitates the defence. The same thing could be seen here: from the entrance there are stairs going upwards and then a right-angle turn to the right.
If somebody is keen on military architecture, it is possible to spend hours here. I am not such a person, so I only walked around different parts of the castle with a rather superficial interest in its interior.
When I finished with my visit to the interior sections, I did something that certainly needs to be done by every visitor to Ajloun Castle – I climbed to one of its defence towers.
The main reason for climbing to the top of the tower is in fact to enjoy the beauty of the surrounding landscapes.
It is precisely because of these rolling hills, that this entire area is excellent for walks in nature. And something of that kind was my next destination. Namely, I did no hiking or any serious walking here, but I did head for Ajloun Forest Reserve.
However, as it turned out, this was not so easy. We reached a spacious parking lot very easily by following signs. And then, suddenly, there was nothing clear there. There was a large, modern building, so I thought it could be a Visitor Centre and that’s why I went in. It was unclear who was more confused – the people I came across there and myself. I told them I was looking for Ajloun Forest Reserve, but they were still confused, since that building was some kind of academy. One of them sent me to the beginning of a forest that could be reached through a back door, but that was certainly not what I was looking for. Then another guy remembered and told me I should go some 400 m farther by the road. I thanked him and went back to the car to inform the driver that I would go on a quest and if I managed to find what I wanted, I would be away for about an hour.
There were some road works being carried out, both on the road itself and beside it, and so some large machinery closed off that section and I almost gave up. Still, since I already got here, I wanted to go to that forest reserve because after all the walking around Jerash and even around Ajloun Castle, I felt the need to be in nature for a while.
Somehow I squeezed past those large machines moving on along the road and then even came a car. I stopped it and asked two people inside about the forest reserve and as it turned out they worked there, spoke perfect English and even offered to take me there. I thanked them saying I would continue to walk which I regretted this soon enough, although it was not too far away. And so I got to the entrance of Ajloun Forest Reserve, there was a sign and now I knew I was at the right place.