The main cardo of Jerash was the city’s backbone, running from north to south. Its construction began towards the end of the first century AD when the Jerash became a Roman city. By this time, Jerash had links via trade to crucial towns in the eastern Roman Empire such as Petra, Bosra and Damascus. These links made the city rich and it displayed its wealth and standing through major public buildings such as the Sanctuary of Artemis, bathhouses and theatres — all accessed via the main cardo.

But the city did not just display its wealth and standing through its buildings. For the main cardo itself, with its covered pavements, monumental road junctions and nymphaeum, was also designed to impress.

The Oval Forum and Tetraphylon

The oval forum and north and south tetraphylon mark junctions and changes in direction along the main cardo, making impressive visual statements about the centre of Jerash at the same time.

• The Oval Forum. This unique structure was not actually the forum of Jerash but a plaza designed to link the city’s southern entrance to the main cardo. Measuring 66m by 99m, the plaza is a roughly elliptical shape edged with ionic colonnades and paved with even blocks of stone arranged in concentric rows. It smoothly disguises the abrupt change in direction that accompanied the approach into the city via the south gate and the junction with the main cardo. The plaza itself — overlooked by the temple of Zeus and southern theatre — would have made an impressive welcome to the city.

• The South Tetraphylon and Circular Plaza. This arrangement marked the junction between the main cardo and the south decumanus of Jerash. It also marked the southernmost entrance to the city centre. While the date of the plaza is undetermined, the tetraphylon dates to the second century AD. It consisted of four four-metre square towers, each with four Corinthian columns resting on a podium and topped off with a decorative entablature. Movement around each tower was free-flowing and allowed a clear view in all directions of the roads about the plaza and the nearby shops.

• The North Tetraphylon marked the northern extent of the centre of Jerash and the junction of the main cardo and the northern decumanus. Its purpose was practical. The main cardo was widened in the second century AD, but this expansion did not extend beyond the northern extent of the tetraphylon. The structure, which consisted of a four-way arch, masked the sudden change in the road width while providing a beautiful monumental structure to mark the northernmost extent of the city.

Roman Shops and the Macellum

The grand public buildings of Jerash’s city centre had some more mundane neighbours. The public food market or macellum had its entrance on the main cardo and its numerous shops ran along the road, sandwiched between the grand monuments.

The cardo itself aggrandized these mundane structures. The pavements that fronted them were covered with collonaded porticos that effectively shaded the pavements, dressing up the shops’ frontage at the same time. The levels of these columns varied to accommodate the street level and keep the portico visually in line. In the second century AD, the original Ionic colonnade was replaced with a more decorative Corinthian format when the main cardo was widened.

The Nymphaeum

A grand nymphaeum or public fountain was also built in the second century AD to mark the widest point of the newly revamped main street. Its remains remain, situated between what became the cathedral complex and the temple of Artemis.

Remains show the fountain was two stories high. The lower levels were covered in green marble, while the upper part was plastered and painted in red and green. Statues acted as conduits for water pouring into the central basin.

While the nymphaeum was making a powerful visual statement about the wealth of Jerash, it also had a practical use for its people as its main basin had lion-headed fountains at pavement level, where passersby could collect water.

Resources

Browning, I, 1982. Jerash and the Decapolis. Chatto & Windus: London

Gates, C, 2003. Ancient Cities: The Archaeology of Urban Life in the Near East and Egypt, Greece and Rome. London: Routledge