Jordan Ruins Jerash 約旦遺址傑拉什

Jordan is one of my three most memorable holidays (the others being the northern lights in Finland and the Machu Picchu in Peru). I’m going to start my first post on my Jordanian journey with a day out to the Roman ruins at Jerash.
約旦是我三個最難忘旅程之一(另外兩個是在芬蘭看北極光和秘魯的馬丘比丘)。 約旦之旅的第一篇，我從羅馬古城傑拉什開始。

Jerash is about 48km north of Jordan’s capital Amman, and if you keep on travelling the same distance you will reach the Syrian border. This is the nearest that I’ve ever been to Syria. Anyway, back to Jerash. The city dates back to prehistorical times, flourishing throughout the years until it was wiped out by an earthquake in 749 which pretty much buried the whole city underground until it was discovered again in 1806. This is now the second most popular tourist destination in Jordan after Petra (I will be posting about Petra later).
傑拉什在約旦首都阿曼以北約48公里處，往北走同樣距離就是敘利亞的邊境。 傑拉什自遠古時代已存在，一直繁榮到公元749年，一次大地震把整個城市淹沒在泥土下。直到1806年才被考古學家發現，重新發掘出來。現在它是繼佩特拉，約旦第二個最受歡迎的名勝 (佩特拉我之後一定會 跟大家分享 )。

This is one of the places where I did do a bit of research before hand about how to get to Jerash from Amman. I found comments online about the approximate price for a taxi, so on the first day after breakfast, I went out onto the streets in Amman looking for an honest looking taxi driver and found this guy. He didn’t speak much English but I managed to get my message through and his price was within the range. I hopped into his taxi and set off on my first trip in Jordan. When I arrived at Jeresh, he didn’t ask for any money and told me to he’d be waiting for me by his taxi whenever I come back. That was a good sign that he wasn’t going to leave me stranded in Jerash.
去傑拉什之前我做了一點功課，知道從安曼乘坐計程車的大約費用。 早上吃過早餐後我到街上找計程車，見到一位貌似老實人的司機，便向他問價，而他要的價錢跟我在網上的資料也相當接近。 我們到傑拉什後，司機說他會在下車點等我回來，並沒有向我收取任何附加費用。這樣我很安心，肯定他不會把我掉在傑拉什。

The first thing I see when I arrive at the ancient site is The Arch of Hadrian. This was built in 129 in the heydays to welcome Hadrian to Jerash and probably says something about how important this site was.
在傑拉什遺址看見第一座建築物是建於129年， 為迎接羅馬帝國君主哈德良而建的大拱門。 可想而知當年傑拉什這個城市是何等重要，連羅馬帝國君主也大駕光臨。

From the Arch of Hadrian, I walk past some pretty impressive structures all which were very well preserved. It was then that I realised the size of the site. The structures right next to me were hugh, and I could see lots of others structure quite far away, mmm… there’s going to be lot of walking….
從哈德良大拱門過後，沿途有不少保育工作做得很好的古代建築物。原來遺址面積很大，看來今天要走很多路喔。

As I walked past these structures and through the archway on the right of the above photo, I saw something really remarkable ahead of me – The Forum.
一直往前走，再經過以上照片右邊那一道較小的拱門，看到前面的橢圓形大廣場 The Forum ，讓我嘆為觀止。

The Forum, or the Oval Plaza is a 90m x 80m plaza surrounded by lots of Ionic colums, a particular type of Greek ancient column style. If you look at the first photo in this post, you can see how big and impressive the Forum is. I was absolutely gobsmacked at the architecture of the whole plaza, and felt so small standing in it. Actually, if you google The Forum in Jerash, some sites will say there are 160 Ionic columns and other says 56. Since this being published on blockchain I thought I’d better get my facts right. I counted 35 on one side so I’d say there’s around 70 in total.
橢圓形大堂廣場有90米 x 80米，兩邊有多條古希臘式列柱圍繞著。 從帖子中的第一張照片可以看到大廣場是何等的宏偉。 網上資料有說大廣場有160支列柱，也有說56支，但我數過我照中所見，應該大概有70支。 區塊鏈會永留資料，還是確實好一點。

The Forum leads to the Cardo Maximus, the main street of the ancient Jeresh city. The Cardo is about 600m long and all the main buildings used to be on this street. It was so surreal walking down here, stepping on the stones which were original from the old days.
從橢圓形廣場往前走是列柱大道，當年是傑拉什古城的主要街道。 整條街道有600多米長， 能夠在有幾千年歷史的街道上步行，真是不可思議的事情。

Some of the structures had collapsed over the years and ruins were lying on ground. I loved how you could actually walk right up to them, admire the intricate stone carvings closely, touch them and feel what ancient feels like. The other thing I loved was that there wasn’t that many tourists around, and there were no jerks climbing onto history and damaging them. I hope it stays this way.
有部分建築物經過多年來的風吹雨打以經倒下來。遊客可以近距離去欣賞這些遺蹟上的石雕刻，親手觸摸歷史實在是非常難得。 我很欣賞遊客們的品德，沒有人站上遺蹟拍照， 沒有人嘗試去破壞石頭雕刻 ， 大家都非常尊重這些見證時代變遷的物件。

At the end of the Cardo is the North Gate and beyond that is the modern day Jerash city, where the old meets the new.
列柱大道的盡頭是北大門，北大門外面就是當今的傑拉什城市，是新舊交接的地點。

Next time I’m going to take you to see some of the other structures including one that moves. Stay tuned.
下次我會繼續為大家介紹傑拉什其他的遺跡建築物，包括一座活的神寺。 期待再見到你噢！