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founder of a
School of Rhetorics in Rome; one poet called the city
"a new Athens." Perched on a splendid hilltop
overlooking the Jordan Valley and the Sea of Galilee, Um
Qeis boasts an ipressive colonnaded terrace and the ruins
of two theatres. You can take in the sights and then dine
of the terrace of a fine restaurant with a breathtaking
view of three countries. Pella is a favourite of
archaeologists – it is exceptionally rich in
antiquities, some of which are exceedingly old. Besides
the excavated ruins from the Greco-Roman period,
including a Odeon (theatre), Pella offers visitors the
opportunity to see the remains of a Chalcolithic
settlement from the 4th millennium BC, the
remains of Bronze and Iron Age walled cities, Byzantine
churches and houses, an Early Islamic residential
quarter, and a small Medieval Islamic mosque.
Jordan’s second city. Irbid, lies in between Pella
and Um Qeis, and is a bustling community with a large
university. Though not an important city for
sight-seeing, Irbid houses two very worthwhile museums,
and forms a good base from which to explore northern
Jordan Valley to start trip to Syria. |
