I'm now going to be using Google+ for photos as they look bad on Travelpod. Also, then you get to see the panoramas in full size and the photo spheres work. Enjoy. If you click 'image details' on the right you'll also see a small map of where the photo was taken, clicking the map takes you to the location in Google Maps. Nice.

Jerash is a bit of an outpost/outback seeming town covering a few hillfaces and a valley either side of a creek callled Chrysorrhoas (Golden River). I spent the morning checking out the Roman ruins either side of Cardo, an ancient street covered with large thick flagstones. I was struck by the chariot wheel grooves in these, it made it easy to imagine oneself walking alongside the locals of this period, jostling with the street sellers probably trying to sell me similar clothes and trinkets to those bothering tourists today, dodging the chariot wheels and heaving horses. 

 The pictures tell most of the story, you can see there was a decent city established, with a number of monuments that would have been impressive in their time. For instance, the city had fresh water available along the central street at a large ornate tank. The tank was made of stone with ornate relief sculptures above it and alcoves where statues must have stood. Right along the cardo were columns, simpler ionic style in the north, corinthian in the south. There was a particularly expansive apron of flagstones ringed with columns in the southern section. Basically it was a plaza, established to link two slightly misaligned streets into one, the Cardo. The most impressive features of the ruins for me were the amphitheatre in the north and the hippodrome to the south. The amphitheatre was remarkably well preserved. In the late 700s there was an earthquake which destroyed much of the city (for example tearing down the hippodrome grandstand) so I'm assuming the amphitheatre was built afterward. It is so well preserved one could hold a show there. The seating is quite steep, however, so some rails would probably have to be installed. 
 
To the south you come across the hippodrome, an ancient stadium. This was designed primarily for chariot racing, so is a long oval shape with a set of arches at one end from which the race started. Archeologists are doubtful it was ever finished and therefore whether a race was ever held - although they said that it was used for gladiator fights. We were treated to a rather fantastic demonstration by locals regarding this. It started off with about 10 men dressed as Roman legionnaires, including metal jointed armour, red shields with yellow designs on them and authentic looking leather sandals. They demonstrated a few of the manouvres soldiers would execute like making a wall with their shields. It was a very spirited display with aggressive grunting and they shouted each step as they marched. After that some gladiators came on! They had a proper raggle taggle appearance, some with beards and dressed like outcasts in sack like clothes. They also put on a series of believable demonstration fights complete with fake blood in the last one when it was interpreted that the crowd wished for him to be killed! 

Overall they got a great response from us - although I hope it wasn't too believable for the kids in the audience, I did hear a few whimpers. Last of all, they had two chariots come on and do a couple of laps of the circuit! This show literally had everything! Topping it all off, at a few moments during proceedings a properly attired soldier type blew a long circular trumpet up on the grandstand to our left. It looked very Roman but perhaps it was the way he played it... there was a bit of a jazzy tone to his notes. So I felt that I had quite a victorious start to my Jordan trip because I actually found out about Jerash by chance whilst watching CNN in Lebanon. They said on the show that the Roman demonstration was not on anymore, but that it might be starting up again soon. 

So it was a nice surprise to be able to see it when I'd been expecting it not to be one whilst really hoping it would be. It really completed the experience of seeing the ruins because as I'm sure you've experienced whilst travelling it can be quite hard to develop a connection with what one is seeing. It can be hard to see the life in a set of ruins, no matter how impressive or well documented by archeologists. Having this show put on by a bunch of eager, sword thrusting, charioteering locals just made it all that much more alive and memorable.