Day 9: Jeresh and the Dead Sea (again)

At 2 am, I was woken up by a knock. Outside my hotel room was my tour guide and my "roommate". Long story short, I became really good friends with him because we pretty much did everything together throughout the trip.

At 8 am, we went down to breakfast and he introduced me to the other members of the tour who flew into Jordan with him. The demographic is as follows:

-A couple in their 60's (British, retired)
-A solo female in her 40's (Scottish)
-A solo female in her 40's (British, theater director)
-A solo female in her 50's (British expat from Qatar, physio)
-A solo female in her late 30's (American, HR manager but quit her job to do a 9 month world trip)
-A mother in her 60's and her son who is 38 (Italians with British roots, the son is a doctor)
-A couple in their mid 30's (Woman is New Zealander and the man is British, I don't think they work)
-A mother in her 60's and her son who is 18 and a huge nerd to say the least. He didn't participate in most physical activities, like hiking or swimming. Sigh, instead, he read books about historical wars, like the Angola War. He likes to ask me math questions because he plans to study mathematics.
-My roommate: A solo male who is 30 (British, doctor)

We went to the tour bus at 9 am and we introduced ourselves and then the tour guide, Zuhir, started telling us stories about Jordanians vs. Syrians, how good Saddam Hussein was, King of Jordan, and many more. An hour later, we arrived at Jeresh.

Herod's Gate, Jeresh

 Jeresh is a very well preserved, ancient Roman city. It is located just North of Amman and there was a small river running next to Jeresh. The first thing we saw was Herod's Gate. I don't know how much of it is original, but the structure is impressive none the less.

After a few minute's walk, we arrived at the forum of Jeresh, which is one of the most well preserved forums. A forum is a gathering point for the Romans.  All of its pillars are original. The reason why they are still standing is because the Romans were very smart: they put counter weights in the pillars. Yes, the same technology that you see in skyscrapers in today's world was introduced by the Romans. Therefore, even though there were earthquakes in this region, the columns remained standing.

The forum.

The forum from up top.

After visiting the forum, we went to the market place. The market place is quite huge and is all full of shops. Every store was decorated with beautiful marbles, but sadly, they're all either stolen or destroyed.

The market place

Next is the spring. This is one of the places where people can fetch water, but this is the most impressive one in the city. Its walls were decorated with marbles and each "window" (not sure what to call them) had a statue of one of the gods. Water would flow in from the holes, which according to the guide was actually statues of animals and the water would flow out of their mouths. This was one of the main gathering points for women.

The marvelous spring

Of course no Roman towns would be complete without an amphitheater and a temple. In fact, all Roman towns have temples. Here are the pictures of the temple and amphitheater. 

Temple

 

Steps of the amphitheater.

After Jeresh, we went for a dip in the Dead Sea. The Jordanian Dead Sea is a hundred times more impressive than the Israeli one. This time, the water is crystal clear and very deep. There were no mud in the bottom, but instead, they're all rocks. Again, you can't sink in the Dead Sea so it was quite surreal to be staring down into the depth of the the water but remain floating. Plus the fact that we went in the evening made it even more perfect. The sun isn't right above and the water was a bit cooler than usual. We floated for an hour and a half chatting. A very good first day indeed.

Beautiful shore of the Dead Sea.