A Jordanian day trip to the Roman ruins of Jerash

- Recommended for:
- Cultural, Mid-range
A day trip from Jordan's capital Amman, the well preserved ruins of the Roman city at Jerash nicely rounds off any trip to Jordan. Explore temples, arches, theatres and streets
My review has been withdrawn as Simonseeks has closed down and monthly payments no longer made.
Unfortunately I cannot completely remove my piece, so I have to substitute my review with 200 words of nonsense.
I always questioned the logic of simonseeks – given that travel is such a crowded spot on the web it seemed they either needed to focus upon a specific niche, beaches or do the tripadvisor approach and “pile it high sell it cheap”.
Instead Simonseeks seemed to want a restricted number of articles with a fairly strict quality control, and sometimes a month would elapse between the user writing and submitting a piece and it being approved.
That was no way to build up the numbers of reviews and loyal contributors needed to make an impact on the search engines. Still, I quite enjoyed hanging around and making a little bit of beer money.
Apparently a group of former employees may yet purchase simonseeks, but in its usual style, we the contributors have been told very little – after waiting patiently for news between May and August 2011, I’m now withdrawing my work while I am still able.
I certainly hope any new Simonseeks team learn from the lessons of the failed first version. However, given my recent experience of “no news” I’m not hopeful.
More information on A Jordanian day trip to the Roman ruins of Jerash:
- Author:
- Paul Read (Moderator)
- Traveller type:
- Travel Enthusiast
- Guide rating:
- (2 votes)
- Total views:
- 83
- First uploaded:
- 11 March 2011
- Last updated:
- 0 sec ago
- Destinations featured:
- Trip types:
- Cultural
- Budget level:
- Mid-range
- Free tags / Keywords:
- Roman ruins, Roman remains, temples, theatres, roman arches, hadrian
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Community comments (2)
This is a well written and easy to use guide to Jerash. It gives the reader all of the necessary information to plan and enjoy a visit. The photos are great and really show the beauty of the ruins and the surprising amount of things that are intact. I enjoyed the scene setting of the opening paragraphs as this gives the reader a great idea of what it is like to be there.
I visited Jerash recently and the chariot race is superb. It is true Roman cities are similar and if you have been to several you will be looking for something a bit different and the chariot race is what makes Jerash shine. It begins with a demonstration of Roman soldiering and the weapons and techniques they used. There is an audio commentary in English describing everything that you see and it is very educational and witty. Then there are gladiatorial contests, again with the educational commentary, and the audience can participate by voting off contestants using the thumb motions that they did at that time. The chariot race is the final part of the show and is quite exciting.
Leptis Magna in Libya is still my favourite Roman city and it is the one I would always recommend if you only have time to visit one. The scale of the place, level of preservation and intact mosaics and marble really impressed me.
Paul, I would suggest linking to your other Jordan guides to help you get more hits. For example, you mention Amman several times in this guide and you could include something like: “readers interested in finding out more about Amman can read my city guide” and include a link. On the Amman guide you could include links to your guides on Jerash and Wadi Rum.
Quite an interesting guide thanks Paul, on an area about which I know nothing, so I appreciated the history lesson.
As you point out yourself, Roman cities are Roman cities, and I don't think I'll make it to this one, but I liked the photos and could see the attraction of being able to wander peacefully among the ruins.