Ajloun and Jerash: Jordan Part 2

One of Saladin's Castles and the Roman City of Gerasa

Amman to Jerash

Jordan

Today we were heading north from Amman and K had suggested an early start. That was fine by us, but we caught the hotel on the hop. Breakfast allegedly started at 7 but at our 7.30 arrival there was no buffet. The staff shuffled into action and we were eventually able to enjoy some ful, boiled egg and local bread.

To Go, or Not To Go

Our destination was Jerash in Jordan’s north-east corner where two days previously there had been an 'incident'. A disgruntled Palestinian refugee had run amok stabbing four tourists and four Jordanians (for Guardian report click here), causing serious injuries but fortunately no deaths. Our British tour company had emailed to say alternative arrangements could be made if we did not fancy Jerash today.

Jerash is 60km north of Amman, heading towards the corner where Syria, Israel and Jordan meet

Our first thought was that immediately after such an event Jerash would be the safest place in the middle east, but we wanted to hear what K had to say. He arrived on time and was keen to explain yesterday’s traffic jams – a police over-reaction to a demonstration by prisoners’ families claiming mistreatment – but said nothing about Jerash except ‘Let’s go.’

So we went.

Leaving Amman took a while, but the road to Jerash was a well-maintained dual carriageway and once beyond the city we made good time.

The well dispersed outer suburbs of Amman

November is the pomegranate season, and every few hundred metres a pomegranate stall sat beside the road.

Pomegranate salesmen near Jerash

Jerash to Ajloun

We drove to Jerash and almost to the town centre before turning off towards our first visit of the day at Ajloun, 20km north-west along narrower, but still well-surfaced roads.

Olive salesmen now joined the pomegranate vendors and as we climbed the hills out of Jerash we paused to look down at the olive groves with the city behind. We were standing beside a small fig tree and although the fruit did not look ripe, K suggested we try one. For the second time in my life (and the second time in six weeks) I ate a fig straight from the tree – it was almost as lovely as the first time.

Olive groves and the city of Jerash

Just over a kilometre away in the opposite direction is the Jerash (or ‘Gaza’) Refugee Camp, set up by the United Nations in 1968 to house 11,500 Palestinians displaced by the previous year’s Arab-Israeli War. It is still there; the tents have been replaced by concrete houses, the population has swollen to 29,000 and it looks like a permanent town – but it a remains a refugee camp, the poorest of the 10 UN administered camps in Jordan with 52.7% of the population living below Jordan’s official poverty line (see UNWRA website here). No sane person would condone yesterday’s attack, but when people are made to live without hope, it is unsurprising that some break.

The road winds though the outskirts of the smaller towns of Raymun and Sakib…

Sakib (I think)

……and on the approach to the next town, Anjara, we had our first view of Ajloun Castle.

First sight of Ajloun Castle

Ajloun Castle, Saladin's Defence Against the Crusaders

We drove through Ajloun town itself – towns come thick and fast in this densely populated area - and up to the castle.

Ajloun town

Ajloun Castle, also known as Qua’alat Ar Rabad, was built on top of Mt Auf (1250m) between 1184 and 1188.

Aljoun Castle

Some Historical Context

As successors of the Romans, the Byzantine Empire held Jerusalem and the Holy Land until the Islamic expansion in the 7th century. First the Ummayad and then the Abbasid Caliphate extended Muslim rule across the Middle East and North Africa.

Abbasid Caliphate at its greatest extent, c950
The Ummayads were displaced by the Abbasids elsewhere but at this time still held Morocco and the Iberian Peninsula)
(The work of Gabagool, borrowed from Wikipedia)

In the 10th century the caliphate started to fragment, though local rulers still recognised the supremacy of the Caliph. Around 1060 the east of the Caliphate was absorbed into the Seljuk Empire, though the caliph remained in Baghdad and retained spiritual leadership.

In 1095 the Byzantine Emperor appealed to his fellow Christian, Pope Urban II for military support against the Muslim Seljuks so Urban sent the First Crusade. The Crusade was actually of little help to the Byzantines but took advantage of the power vacuum in the west of the caliphate, establishing the County of Edessa (now in southern Turkey), the Principality of Antioch (southern Turkey/eastern Syria) and the County of Tripoli (now largely in Lebanon) and overrunning the 'Holy Land'. Most Crusaders went home once Jerusalem was taken, but enough remained for Godfrey of Bouillon to be declared ruler of Jerusalem in 1099 . Godfrey died in 1100, but his brother Baldwin was crowned King of Jerusalem and although his Kingdom was little more than a collection of connected cities, it struggled on for almost a hundred years.

The Crusader States after the First Crusade
(The work of MapMaster, borrowed from Wikipedia)

The weak Crusader Kingdoms still left a power vacuum, which was filled by Salah-al-Din, usually known in English as Saladin. Of Kurdish origin, he was appointed Vizier of Egypt in 1169 and by 1183 controlled Egypt, Syria, Upper Mesopotamia, the west of the Arabian peninsula and part of the North African coast, nominally on behalf of the Caliph.

In 1184 he ordered his nephew Izz-ad-Din to construct Ajloun Castle to guard the north and help the Damascus authorities control the local Bedouin who enjoyed considerable autonomy and had the irritating habit of occasionally siding with the Crusaders.

Saladin decisively defeated the Crusaders at the Battle of Hattin in 1187 and gained control of the former crusader states, thus provoking the Third Crusade. (The Second, 1147-50, had the limited objective of recapturing Edessa which had fallen to the Seljuks in 1146. It failed.) Saladin was an able military commander, and his humane treatment of the citizens and defeated defenders of Jerusalem gave him a reputation throughout Europe as a ‘chivalrous knight.’

From the outside Ajloun has some similarities to the, for us, more familiar castles of western Europe; like Goodrich in Herefordshire (we visited in September 2019) it is surrounded by a deep dry ditch. Once across the ditch the same murder-holes and arrow slits await the unwelcome visitor.

Across the ditch into Ajloun Castle

But here the similarity ends. Aljoun has no curtain wall, it lacks the open interior characteristic of the Norman motte and bailey design. You can walk up the steps….

Up the stairs, Ajloun Castle

….and wander through the rooms, but they are all within the masonry.

Inside Ajloun Castle

From the top there are commanding views across the countryside. Unlike Goodrich, which was a home as well as a stronghold, Aljoun was a dedicated military base, an observation post and a communications centre. It was one of a ‘chain of beacons and pigeon posts that enabled messages to be transmitted from between Damascus and Cairo in a single day’. (Lonely Planet).

Commanding view from the top of Ajloun Castle

The castle was built in stages. Izz-ad-Din’s compact nucleus was enlarged many times and several towers were added. It was long believed the castle had been built over a Byzantine monastery. There is a clue on the outer wall…

Top of a Byzantine niche incorporated into an external wall, Ajloun Castle

…but recently the floor of a Byzantine church has been uncovered within the castle.

Floor of a Byzantine church inside Ajloun Castle

Tea and Olives on the road back to Jerash

Leaving the castle, we paused for mint tea at the stall by the entrance. The stallholder insisted on taking a photograph of us – he must use this angle a hundred times a day.

Behind the teapots, Ajloun Castle

Unfortunately, K was hidden in that picture and as he was an important part of the team, I asked for a photo that included him.

From a different angle, K appears in the picture, Tea stall outside Ajloun Castle

Driving us back to Jerash, K asked if we minded him stopping to buy olives; it was olive season and his wife had tasked him with bringing home the year’s supply. We were happy to co-operate.

Roadside olive stall, near Jerash

I posed elegantly by the boxes while the stall holder talked K through the varieties and prices.

I pose elegantly while K gets the sales talk.
What do you mean that's not elegant? Harumph

He bought a box of green olives which were poured into a splitter along with a quantity of salt. The handle was turned and the olives emerged, each one with a gash and a dusting of salt. His box of black olives did not require this treatment; K explained they would be ready to eat after immersion in brine for a couple of months.

The olive splitter, roadside near Jerash

At the last minute he changed his mind and upgraded his black olives to the top quality, doubling the price. He bought a box of each colour, 10Kg in total I would guess, I do not know whether that really was the supply for the year, but olives are undoubtedly important to Jordanians.

Roman Gerasa and Modern Jerash

Settled in Neolithic times, there was already a town in the place we now call Jerash when Alexander the Great passed through in 333 BCE. Pompey’s rampage through the area in 64 BCE created the Roman Province of Syria, and Gerasa, as the Romans named it, became a major provincial city.

Jerash/Gerasa was/is split in two by a cultivated wadi. Most of the population have always lived on the east side, but the Romans constructed their important and ceremonial buildings in a walled city on the west.

Made wealthy by agriculture and iron ore, Gerasa remodelled itself on a grid system in the 1st century CE. Much of the work was completed under the Emperor Trajan, but it was his successor Hadrian who was honoured by the triumphal arch built for his visit in 129.

Hadrian's Arch, Gerasa (Jerash)

Equipped with a local guide, the man walking with a stick in the picture below, we strolled up the side of the hippodrome,…

Walking along the wall of the hippodrome, Gerasa

….along a line of shops,…

A line of Roman shops, Gerasa

….climbed the steps below the Temple of Zeus…

The top of the steps up to the forum, Gerasa

…and emerged into the forum. As we did so the guide exchanged a few words with the man sitting on the wall (above). We caught the word 'security' and then there was laughter and our guide waved his stick in the air. I had forgotten about the stabbings two days ago, there was no 'tight security' and no tension in the atmosphere. I had assumed the stick was a walking aid, not a weapon, but there seemed no expectation that it would be needed. I liked their attitude, 'security' makes me nervous; I feel safer without it.

The forum, Gerasa

Constructed in the late 1st century CE and lying at the end of the main street (the Cardo Maximus) the forum is a huge oval 80m by 60m surrounded by 56 ionic columns. The paving slabs of high-quality limestone decrease in size towards the centre. The effect is best seen from above and fortunately, Gerasa is built on the gently sloping bank of a wadi so getting above the forum is easy.

The forum and cardo maximus from above, Gerasa

We strolled along the Cardo, looking at the ruts made by ancient carts and thinking about all those who had walked this way before.

Along the Cardo Maximus, Gerasa

We paused to wonder at a Roman manhole and consider what may have lain below, then gave a moment’s thought to the poor sap, presumably a slave, who had to deal with it.

Roman manhole in the Cardo Maximus, Gerasa

Beyond the South Decumanus, one of the two main roads crossing the Cardo at right angles,....

Looking down the South Decumanus towards the Cardo Maximus, Gerasa

.... is the Nymphaeum. Built about 91 CE and dedicated to the water nymphs it housed the city’s main fountain.

Nymphaeum, Gerasa

Taking the steps to the left here leads to the remains of the Byzantine cathedral, but we were distracted by a young man using coloured sand to produce pictures in a bottle.

Making 'sand pokings', Gerasa

He produced some elaborate scenes, skilfully poking the various coloured sands into place with a spike. We settled for one of his simpler efforts – well, everything in Jordan is expensive.

Our very own Jordanian 'sand poking'

Steps to the right of the Nymphaeum led to the Temple of Artemis, but we would see that on our return journey.

The Cardo reaches the North Decumanus at the North Tetrapylon. Rebuilt in 2000, it was probably intended as a gate to the North Theatre. From here the Cardo descends to the North Gate.

The North tetrapylon and the Cardo leading down to the North Gate, Geras

Following the North Decumanus a little way uphill brought us to the North Theatre, the smaller of Gerasa’s two theatres, though with seating for 2,000. Built in 65 CE and enlarged in 235 it was used for government meetings rather than performances. Damaged by earthquakes and used as a quarry in Byzantine and Umayyad times it has recently been heavily restored.

North Theatre, Gerasa

Turning south, following the line of the Cardo but further up the slope, we came to the Temple of Artemis.

Temple of Artemis, Gerasa

Built 150-170 CE 11 of its 12 carved Corinthian columns are still in place. The edict of Theodorius (386) encouraged the destruction of pagan temples, and much of the stone was re-used in the construction of churches. It later became a workshop producing kitchenware and then an Arab fortification against the Crusaders.

Sandstone Corinthian Columns, Temple of Artemis, Gerasa

The temple of Zeus, above the forum, built in 126 CE over a previous temple looks impressive from a distance…

Temple of Zeus, Gerasa

…but the sturdy walls of the inner sanctum are all there is to see from close up.

Inner sanctum, Temple of Zeua, Gerasa

And that finished our tour of Gerasa/Jerash, our guide had done his best in the time allotted, but it was a cursory overview. We would rather have spent longer on our own with a good guide book. but we could not know that at the planning stage, and had locked ourselves into an inflexible arrangement.

Lunch at Artemis

Lunchtime had come and was rapidly going so we were peckish. K was determined we would eat at Artemis; ‘it’s amazing’ he said, yet again deploying his favourite adjective, but the more he described it the more it sounded like the tourist feeding centres we try to avoid. But there was no avoiding it, it was conveniently close to the Roman city and perhaps guides ate free (and that may be an unworthy thought).

It was massive, but emptying out by the time we arrived; the queues round the buffet tables were visibly shrinking, though ample food remained. Reasonably priced and much better quality than I had feared, it was not a great dining experience nor was it ‘amazing’ but it was acceptable; and they had beer, too - but at £7.50 for a 500ml can we found it resistible.

Evening in Amman

The long journey back to Amman passed without incident.

The sun sets early in Jordan, but we had time for a walk to see where we might go later. Our travel agent’s description of the hotel as being ‘within walking distance of Rainbow Street’ Amman’s main street of restaurants and cafés, involved some poetic licence, and there was little in the immediate area except hospitals and clinics, dozens of them. We found a couple of formal restaurants and, of more use after a large lunch, a clean, modern coffee and cake establishment.

In the end we could not be bothered. We settled for making ourselves a cup-a-soup then descended to the hotel bar. Jordanian brewed draught Amstel went down well enough but at 5.50JD + tax + service (to make the usual £7.50) one each was enough.

Jordan

Part 1: Amman

Part 2: Ajloun and Jerash
Part 3: Shobak Castle and the Back Trail to Petra
Part 4: Petra
Part 5: Wadi Rum

Part 6: Swimming in the Dead Sea

THE END