Jerash, the ancient Greco-Roman city of Gerasa, lies in northern Jordan about 48 kilometers north of Amman, on ground first settled by around 7500 BC. One of the cities of the Decapolis, Gerasa flourished through the Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine periods and survives today as one of the largest and best-preserved examples of Roman provincial architecture outside Italy, earning it the nickname the Pompeii of the Middle East. Its remains include an oval forum ringed by Ionic columns, temples to Zeus and Artemis, two theaters, a long colonnaded street known as the cardo, and the Arch of Hadrian, raised to mark the emperor's visit of AD 129 to 130. After Petra, the ruins are Jordan's second most visited archaeological destination.
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