After the unparalleled beauty of Wadi Rum and Petra, both experiences that I have not found equals for anywhere in the world, Amman did not look appealing. As my bus out from Petra approached the city from the south the only color I could see was gray. Squat concrete buildings filled the entire horizon from end to end. Areas that used to be cities in their own right have simply been subsumed and become urban sprawl. Amman might be a fine city, full of stuff to do and see, but I just couldn’t stomach it after so much time in the open countryside. So I rented a car and left.
I went North to Jerash. This is a little easier said than done, as Amman is not the most easily navigated city I’ve seen, but after some helpful folks at the gas station led me down the road (a few hours after I’d set out on a two hour drive) I was on my way. Jerash is one of the best preserved Roman ruins I’ve ever seen, excepting Rome itself and Baalbak in Lebanon. I have no idea what the significance of the town was, the historical importance of the place, or the purpose of many of the structures. There were well preserved remnants of a race track, and an immaculate forum that seemed to escape all the ravages of time. I stayed on until the sun dropped below the columns and then I headed back south. I’ll just leave you with some of the pictures:
Spectacular
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