Again, Xposted to LJ and Emailed...
No trip to Jordan is complete without seeing these both...but of course Petra overshadows all
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I just returned from Jordan, where I saw Jerash and Petra, two of the most famous sites in the country (and also two of the most breathtaking). Petra was absolutely out of this world, but I'll start with Jerash which is also something not to be missed.
Jerash is one of the most well-preserved ruins of a Greco-Roman city in the world--it was rediscovered in the mid 19th century by a British explorer and is still being excavated to this day. Its original size was over double the current region of the archeological preserve.
Just past the entrance...we went forward and then left up onto the raised platform to get into the city square.
The city square, with a pillar in the middle (I don't think there were pillars elsewhere in the center, so perhaps its original purpose was to prop something else up).
Taking a detour to the left we come to the amphitheatre. The entrance either leads one here, to the raised stage, or into the open area on the ground.
This is only a little over 1/2 of the way from the top, so you can imagine how high up the seats go. The acoustics in the theatre are built so that one can drop a coin and it can be heard crystal clear all the way at top of the theatre.
I guess Greeks had small feet, cause I just about slipped and broke somethin trying to walking up these steps with my size 15s.
Each stone seat has Greek letters engraved in them, meaning there was assigned seating to the theatre even back then!
Back on the road..and guess what that means? MORE PILLARS! WOW!
(continued in next post)
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