The Jordan Valley and Petra . cuts the ridge of Mount Gileadwith a deep cleft, piercing the edge of the Syriandesert. About twenty miles east of the Jordan abeautiful winding valley from the north comesdown to join the deeper valley. Two hours northof the Jabbok, in this valley called ed Dair, onboth sides of the rushing shallow brook, the cul-tured Greeks built this beautiful city. They chosea spot amid the encircling hills, where a high hillrose toward the east, from whose base issued a finefountain and where the floor and bed of the mainbrook was some sixty feet below the level of theopen s
The Jordan Valley and Petra . cuts the ridge of Mount Gileadwith a deep cleft, piercing the edge of the Syriandesert. About twenty miles east of the Jordan abeautiful winding valley from the north comesdown to join the deeper valley. Two hours northof the Jabbok, in this valley called ed Dair, onboth sides of the rushing shallow brook, the cul-tured Greeks built this beautiful city. They chosea spot amid the encircling hills, where a high hillrose toward the east, from whose base issued a finefountain and where the floor and bed of the mainbrook was some sixty feet below the level of theopen spaces on either side. The city wall encloseda rough triangle of three miles in circumference,climbing the hillsides, spanning the brook twice;the city gates, north, south, east, and west, guardedthe roads which connected Gerasa with otherGrecian cities. Within the city they reared insplendid architecture every structure that madelife worth living to the Greek mind and heart—the colonnaded street, ending in the Forum, above. Jerash 185 which towered a beautiful temple and behind whichstood a great theatre, the bath, stately tombs, atriumphal arch, and not far away the seat-encircledNaumachia where the sea-loving people watchedthe mimic warfare between bireme, trireme, andfire-ships, and where Neptune and all the otherdeities of the sea were welcomed with shouts. Theviews from temple and theatre over the match-less city and fertile country round about, fat witholive trees and rolling fields of grain, completedthe beautiful setting of one of the loveliest sites ofall the ancient world. According to Pliny, Gerasa was one of theoriginal ten cities which formed the its known coins and inscriptions date from theRoman period, but the architecture of the Forumis Ionic of an early type. The city lay on the south-ernmost of the three great Roman roads leadingout of Scythopolis and into the country east of theJordan. The cities along this line were Pella, Dion,whose site is
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