The Whirlwind Tour of the Middle East

I am sorry to have to have waited so long. Let me catch you up. I have since moved from Oman, and have to change the name of my blog, but here are some of the things Kaylynn and I did while we were in the Middle East. We spent time seeing some of Oman, visiting the sunken city of Ubar, and the 3rd Century ruins of Sumharam. Khor Rori (Sumharam) is an Early Southern Arabian archaeological site near Salalah in the Dhofar region of modern Oman. The small fortified town was founded as an outpost for the kingdom of Hadramawt in modern Yemen around the turn of our era, but the site shows signs of Hadrami settlement back to the third century CE. The settlement was probably abandoned in the seventh century. After visiting there we flew to Amman, Jordan, where we went to the Roman ruins of Jerash. The picture to the left is us at the Collanade of Jerash. Jerash is known for the ruins of the Greco-Roman city of Gerasa, also referred to as Antioch on the Golden River. It is sometimes misleadingly referred to as the "Pompeii of the Middle East or Asia", referring to its size, extent of excavation and level of preservationn (though Jerash was never buried by a volcano).

Jerash is considered one of the most important and best preserved Roman cities in the Near East. It was a city of the Decapolis. In AD 90, Jerash was absorbed into the Roman province of Arabia, which included the city of Philadelphia (modern day Amman). The Romans ensured security and peace in this area, which enabled its people to devote their efforts and time to economic development and encouraged civic building activity.

In the second half of the first century AD, the city of Jerash achieved great prosperity. In AD 106, the Emperor Trajan constructed roads throughout the provinces and more trade came to Jerash. The Emperor Hadrian visited Jerash in AD 129-130. The triumphal arch (or Arch of Hadrian) was built to celebrate his visit. A remarkable Latin inscription records a religious dedication set up by members of the imperial mounted bodyguard "wintering" there. The picture above is that of that of a re-enactment of the 6th Legion that fought with Caeser against Pompeii. The picture to the left is Hadrian's Arch, which the Emperor came through on his visit to the city. There were so many thing to see. I wish I had more time to stay and study the ruins, but we were on our whirlwind tour. After visiting Jerash we went with our guide, Ghazi Alawneh, to a Crusade Era castle, claimed to have been built by Saladin's nephew, but looked very european. (I guess they borrowed a building technique or two.) We climbed around the castle, and you could see the countries of Syria, Israel, and Irasacked and taken by the Iq from the castle mounts. It was very cool to see and I have some really great pictures of the castle and the mounts. There was a mosaic on the floor that was covered up, and it didn't look like it was covered with very old dirt. If you look carefully at it you can see a figure with an outstretched arm. Interesting.