Gerasenes

Jerash جرش Gerasa (Ancient Greek)
City
The Roman city of Gerasa and the modern Jerash (in the background).
Nickname(s): Pompeii of the East, The city of 1000 columns
Jerash
Coordinates: 32°16′20.21″N 35°53′29.03″E / 32.2722806°N 35.8913972°E / 32.2722806; 35.8913972
Country	Jordan
Province	Jerash Governorate
Founded	2000 BC.
Municipality established	1910
Government
• Type	Municipality
Elevation	600 m (1,968 ft)
Population (2015)
• Total	city (50,745), Municipality (237.000 est)
Time zone	GMT +2
• Summer (DST)	+3 (UTC)
Area code(s)	+(962)2
Website	http://www.jerash.gov.jo

Coordinates: 32°16′20.21″N 35°53′29.03″E / 32.2722806°N 35.8913972°E / 32.2722806; 35.8913972

Jerash, the Gerasa of Antiquity (Arabic: جرش, Ancient Greek: Γέρασα), is the capital and the largest city of Jerash Governorate (محافظة جرش), which is situated in the north of Jordan, 48 kilometres (30 mi) north of the capital Amman towards Syria. Jerash Governorate's geographical features vary from cold mountains to fertile valleys from 250 to 300 metres (820 to 980 ft) above sea level, suitable for growing a wide variety of crops.

The history of the city is a blend of the Greco-Roman world of the Mediterranean basin and the ancient traditions of the Arab Orient. The name of the city reflects this interaction. The earliest Arab/Semitic inhabitants, who lived in the area during the pre-classical period of the 1st millennium BCE, named their village Garshu. The Romans later Hellenized the former Arabic name of Garshu into Gerasa. Later, the name transformed into the Arabic Jerash.

The city flourished into the mid-eighth century CE, when the 749 Galilee earthquake destroyed large parts of Jerash, while subsequent earthquakes (847 Damascus earthquake) along with wars and turmoil contributed to additional destruction. However, In the early 12th century, by the year 1120, Zahir ad-Din Toghtekin, atabeg of Damascus ordered a garrison of forty men stationed in Jerash to convert the Temple of Artemis into a fortress. It was captured in 1121 by Baldwin II, King of Jerusalem, and utterly destroyed. Then, the Crusaders immediately abandoned Jerash and withdrew to Sakib (Seecip); the eastern border of the settlement. Jerash was then deserted until it reappeared in the Ottoman tax registers in the Sixteenth Century (1538, 1548, 1596); it had -for example- a population of 12 households in 1596. However, the archaeologists have found a small Mamluk hamlet in the Northwest Quarter which indicates that Jerash was resettled before the Ottoman era. The excavations conducted since 2011 have shed light on the Middle Islamic period as recent discoveries have uncovered a large concentration of Middle Islamic/Mamluk structures and pottery.