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GERASA (Ancient city) JORDAN
Gerasa (Gerasa: Eth. Gerasenos), a city of Coelesyria, according to
Ptolemy (v. 15); reckoned to the Decapolis by Pliny, for it is clear that Gerasa
must be substituted for Galasa, as by Harduin. (Plin. v. 18.) It is associated
with Philadelphia, as the eastern boundary of Peraea, by Josephus (B. J. iii.
2), and mentioned in conjunction with Pella and Scythopolis (i. 4; ii. 19). But,
according to Ptolemy, it was 35 miles from Pella. Its site is marked by the very
extensive ruins of Gerash, about 35 miles east of the Jordan, at the eastern extremity
of the land of Basihan, and on the borders of the great desert of the Hauvan.
It is remarkable, considering the importance of the ruins, that the historical
notices are so scanty; but it appears to have attained its celebrity posterior
to the classical geographers, as all the fragments of the inscriptions to be found
among the ruins bear the name of the emperor Antoninus. It is much to be regretted
that the results of the careful survey of this interesting city by Captains Irby
and Mangles, in company with Mr. Bankes, have never yet been given to the world.
It was first discovered by Seetzen, in 1805-1806, and afterwards described by
the enterprising Burckhardt; since which time it has been frequently visited and
described by European travellers. The summary description of those most accurate
observers Captains Irby and Mangles must suffice in this place; but for fuller
particulars the reader may consult Burckhardt (Syria, pp. 252-264) and Buckingham
(Travels in Palestine, caps. xx. xxi.), the former of whom has furnished a general
plan of the city, and the latter a more accurate plan, with details of the principal
buildings. But the best idea of the extent and grandeur of the ruins may be obtained
from the wonderfully accurate reproduction in three engravings from Daguerreotype
drawings by Dr. Keith, published in illustration of the 36th edition of his father's
work on The Evidence of Prophecy, in which the principal streets and buildings
are clearly to be distinguished. The summary description above alluded to is as
follows:
It has been a splendid city, built on two sides of a valley, with a fine stream
running through it; the situation is beautiful. The town has been principally
composed of two main streets, crossing each other in the centre at right angles,
like Antinoe. The streets have been lined with a double row of columns, some of
which are Ionic and some Corinthian; the pavement is exceedingly good, and there
is an elevated space on each side for foot passengers; the marks of the chariot
wheels are visible in many parts of the streets. Djerash, supposed to be either
Pella or Gerasa, but in some respects answering to neither, can boast of more
public edifices than any city we have seen. There are two theatres, two grand
temples, one, as appears by a Greek inscription, dedicated to the sun, like that
at Palmyra, and not unlike that edifice, being constructed in the centre of an
immense double peristyle court. The diameter of the columns of the temple is five
feet, and the height of just proportions; tile capitals are Corinthian and well
executed. One singularity in this edifice is a chamber under ground, below the
principal hall of the temple, with a bath in the centre. Five or six inferior
temples are scattered about the town, and a magnificent Ionic oval space, of 309
feet long, adds greatly to the beauty of the ruins. The scene of the larger theatre
is nearly perfect, presenting a singularity very rarely to be met with. There
are two grand baths, and also two bridges crossing the valley and river. The temples,
and both theatres, are built of marble, but not of very fine sort. Three hundred
yards from SW. gate is the Circus or Stadium, and near it is the triumphal arch.
The cemetery surrounds the city, but the sarcophagi are not very highly finished;
upwards of 230 columns are now standing in the city. There is to the NE., about
200' yards distance, a very large reservoir for water, and a picturesque tomb
fronted by 4 Corinthian columns; near it also is an aqueduct. These ruins, being
overgrown with wood, are objects of considerable interest. There are numerous
inscriptions in all directions, chiefly of the time of Antoninus Pins; most of
them are much mutilated; but the one I allude to about the Temple of the Sun,
was on the propyleum of that edifice, which has been a grand piece of architecture.
On the whole, we hold Djerash to be a much finer mass of ruins than Palmyra; the
city has three entrances of richly ornamented gateways, and the remains of the
wall, with its occasional towers, are in wonderful preservation.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
A city of Coele-Syria, about thirty-five miles east of the Jordan. The historical notices of this place are very scanty, yet the extent and magnificence of the existing ruins show it to have been once a great and wealthy city. Its site is now called Djerash, and there are remains of two theatres, two large temples and five or six smaller ones, a forum, two fine baths, a triumphal arch, a large reservoir, and two bridges.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
About 48 km N of Amman/Philadelphia in the hills of Gilead S of the
Hauran. It was transformed from a village into a considerable town in Hellenistic
times, perhaps by Antiochos IV Epiphanes (175-164 B.C.), and was known then as
Antioch on the Chrysorhoas. Early in the 1st c. B.C. it was annexed by Alexander
Janneus to Jewish territory, and in 63 B.C. Pompey in his reorganization of the
East assigned it to Roman Syria as one of the towns of the Decapolis; in the 3d
c. A.D. it was elevated to the rank of colony. As a provincial agricultural, mining,
and caravan town Gerasa flourished under the Roman Empire, remaining relatively
prosperous until in the 7th c. it was captured first by the Persians (614) and
then by the Arabs (635). One of the few ancient writers to mention Gerasa is Josephus
(BJ 1.104, 2.458, etc.); however, several hundred inscriptions, chiefly of Imperial
date, have been found on the site. Considerable excavation and restoration has
taken place since 1920.
In plan the town is divided N and S into two inwardsloping, unequal
parts by the Chrysorhoas. There is a perennial spring within the walls; N of the
site in Roman times a reservoir was built from which an aqueduct ran to the town.
The chief gates are N and S and they received the main roads of the area, which
were among those much renovated and augmented in the East in Trajan's time. The
town walls, so slight as to be almost cosmetic, are sprinkled with small towers
and enclose ca. 100 ha. Perhaps ten or fifteen thousand people lived in Gerasa
in the early 2d c. A.D.
What can be seen today is post-Hellenistic in date and consists almost
entirely of principal streets and public buildings; few private or domestic remains
have been uncovered. The architecture of Gerasa is richly worked and in some ways
baroque, a successful synthesis of the Hellenistic and Roman Imperial styles.
Also, much of the monumental building typology of imperial towns is represented;
Gerasa is a significant site in these respects. This is clearly shown by a huge
triumphal arch, a large part of which still stands outside the town walls to the
S. It was probably erected to commemorate a visit by Hadrian during the winter
of 128-29. About 37.5 m wide, it is divided into five bays characterized by niches,
aediculae, orders at three different scales, and decorative architectural sculpture
of floral motifs. Beside this arch stood the town stadium.
A street plan approximately orthogonal, at least with regard to the
major thoroughfares, was laid upon the site apparently in Early Imperial times.
The southernmost portion of the town, however, is not subject to this grid: the
S gate gives obliquely onto a large paved area of irregularly oval plan surrounded
by an Ionic colonnade (ca. 66 x 99 m, and built ca. A.D. 300; there was a rather
similar plaza at Palmyra). Nearby, and also independent of the orthogonal system,
is a large Temple of Zeus (begun ca. A.D. 22 but finished in the 160s). It is
of typical Romano-Syrian type, with unfluted peristyle columns arranged 8 by 12,
the whole raised on a broad and high podium. The cella wall is decorated with
scalloped niches on the exterior and broad pilasters on the interior. Nearby is
the S theater, first constructed in the 1st c. A.D. but later rebuilt. Its elaborate
scaenae frons, now partly restored, consists of projecting and retreating pavilions
and aediculae, with orders of varying scales.
The main street runs N from the oval plaza. To the E of this street
bridges carried the main cross streets over the Chrysorhoas ravine. The main street
and many of the subsidiary streets were colonnaded; sometimes the Corinthian order
was used, sometimes the Ionic. Two of the major intersections with the main street
were marked by tetrapyla; of these the S one was set in a large circular space
with tabernae round about. Some of the column shafts along the streets carry brackets
for sculpture, in the Palmyrene manner, and in order to emphasize the locations
of entrances to major buildings the height of the colonnade was from time to time
raised above the standard level. Along the main N-S street were placed a large,
scenically designed nymphaeum and propylaea to the (later) Cathedral and to the
Temple of Artemis.
The last-named is an elaborate system of architectural screens and
openings articulated by aediculae and a rich profusion of decoration. It is centered
upon a majestic staircase that rises up the W slope of the town to give onto the
immense, walled precinct of Artemis (all from the mid 2d c. A.D.). This complex,
one of the major monuments of Roman religious architecture in the Near East, measures
ca. 240 by 120 m. The temple proper is ca. 52.5 m in length and stands in a colonnaded
temenos. In design it is rather similar to that of the Temple of Zeus but with
columns disposed 6 by 11. The podium is high, the porch deep, and the order Corinthian
(some columns stand--they are unfluted and carry a suggestion of double entasis;
this is the order that appears in so many Gerasa buildings).
To the E of the main N-S street are the remains of two baths; in the
N ruins there is a large, well-preserved room roofed by a true pendentive dome
made of stone (2d c. A.D.?). To the W of this, across the main street, there is
a second (N) theater, set beside a handsome rectangular plaza. Outside the town
to the N, beside the reservoir, there is a third, smaller, theater.
Early Christian remains at Gerasa are important. At least 13 churches
are known (seven from the time of Justinian), and their plans and to a degree
their elevations can be recovered. Both basilican and centralized designs were
built, largely from materials taken from earlier structures. Almost all these
churches can be dated, and some excellent mosaics have been revealed. Three examples
of Gerasa churches may suffice. The Cathedral, of the second half of the 4th c.,
was approached from the main N-S street by way of a colonnaded, monumental staircase.
The building, of the three-aisled basilican type, was erected on the site of a
Temple to Dionysos, parallel to and slightly below the precinct of the great Temple
of Artemis. Just beyond the Cathedral, to the W, was a courtyard centering on
a miraculous fountain. Farther to the W, in the center of a complex of three churches,
was the Church of St. John the Baptist, built in 529-33. It was planned as a circle
inscribed in a square, with the corners of the latter receiving deep niches; this
is a variant on the slightly earlier Cathedral at Bosra, to the N. At the Church
of the Prophets, Apostles, and Martyrs of the 460s the plan consists of a cross
inscribed in a square, with the remaining corner rectangles walled off into all
but discrete volumes. All of these churches had apses projecting toward the E.
By the late 8th c. people were still living around the S tetrapylon
circle and in the oval plaza. Today, some of Gerasa's mosaics are still in situ;
other materials from the site can be seen in the archaeological museum in Jerusalem
and at the Yale University Art Gallery.
W. L. Macdonald, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains 45 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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