Jerash is yet another of the cities of the Greek Decapolis. The Biblical name is Gerasa, and it appears it was in the territory of Gerasa that Jesus ran into a demoniac with a Legion of demons. There is some textual uncertainty involved as the Greek may have originally read Gadarene demoniac (as in the city of Gadara near the south end of the Sea of Galilee). In any, Jerash is a major site of the Biblical period well worth seeing, for it gives a better picture of what ancient city would have looked like, than one can find almost anywhere else in the region (Scythopolis/ Beth Shan is a possible exception). Here is first the inner gate right next to the Roman forum, and then the later ancient Hadrianic ceremonial gate at the entrance to the city near the Hippodrome….
Here’s the hippodrome on the edge of the city…..
Those are the starting gates….
The forum is simply enormous, you can’t get it all in one shot, unless you are flying overhead! 
The Hippodomos plan of ancient Greek cities involved two main streets which intersected at right angles in the center of the city. Jerash is an excellent illustration of this street plan, and very different from some Roman towns like Rome itself. 
Just the width of the streets and the endless rows of columns and colonnades tell you how important this city was in ancient times…..
There were all sorts of shops, and of course temples in the city as well. 
Here is one of the major temples in the city….
And there were statues in numerous places of people and even animals…
Nymphaeums and other sorts of water fountains can be found all over the city….
Notice the difference between the last two slides… the shell is from the Greek period, the combination of shell and winged dove comes from the Byzantine period. This city became a Christian town in the Byzantine period, and there are the remains of a church, near fountain court….
Here’s the entrance to the Byzantine basilica….
There are a few items of interest in the small museum next to the archaeological site, for instance this Nabatean statue…..
Here’s a tiny votive altar….
and an honorific column….
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