Um Qeis-Recently renamed from Gadara to Um Qeis in favor of a more Arabic name (Um Qeis means "our mother). Home to one of the few churches in Jordan and was a tribute to Jesus' supposed visit. The view of the Golden Heights, Israel should have shown us the sea of Gallie, but it was just a little too hazy. Many roman ruins from the ancient town. Back in the day it was a major hub for travelers and locals. It was pretty cool to be able to be able to walk where Roman carriages had been (you could see the grooves worn in the road from the wheels). I winder if thousands of years ago the people who built those roads imagined that tourists in 2012 would be walking in their steps? Kinda cool to think about...
After another hour drive we visited the ancient Islamic crusader castle of Aljoun. Built during the Bristish invasion if the area to protect the region, it was the most intact castle we visited. In general the way you would expect a castle to look-moat, slit windows, larger opening above the doors for easy access for pouring boiling pitch on uninvited guests...you know, just like homes today. Much of the castle had been restored, again, a lot of earthquake damage to most ancient structures, so it was nice to be able to experience the "whole" castle. There were beautiful arches and water channels through out (to distribute collected rain water) which showed the thought put in to building the "fortress". Castles were strategically built through out the area to prevent Syria, south of Jordan and the Holy Lands from uniting. King Saladin was mostly responsible for uniting the Arabs to stop the advances of the British, and is the current hopes of the region that a new Saladin will come to power and stop the fighting and wars. The region was again mountainous and well known for it's olive and olive oil production. The olives were just harvested a few months ago, so the oil was super fresh. Lucky us :)
After another quick lunch (mixed grill with the company of a cute stray cat), we hurried to Jeresh. HUGE ancient city which held an arena for gladiators, amphitheater, ancient temple to Zeus, shops, baths, and even a church. While it seems like we visited a lot of churches, there are only a few ancient ones in Jordan. The church was only partially standing like many of the sites we visited due to earthquake damage. Aziz told us that earthquakes large enough to damage buildings happen once every ten years or so! Luckily the government recognizes the value of such historic sites and puts forth the effort to restore them. This particular church was near the temple of Artimus, and had a partially visible mosaic floor. Again down the hill (this was all done in a SHORT time span because the sites close earlier in the fall than they do in the summer and our tour company did not allot for the time changes.)
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