Today a few of my program mates and I went to the ancient Roman ruins that can be found in Jersah, a city in north Jordan. Getting there was quite easy as we took taxis and met at the bus station in Abdulli that takes people to destinations in northern Jordan.

Once at the bus station we easily found our the bus we were looking for as an attendant called out Jersah to us as he assumed that we being Westerners were probably looking for the city frequented by my many tourists each day.  Much smaller than Amman, the city of Jersah itself was a nice respite in itself from the bustling pace of the Jordanian capital.  Even more serene though, was the park of ancient of ruins that my friends and I came to see. 

While they are obviously not comparable to either Petra or the Coliseum, the ruins at Jersah are still quite magnificent and really connect you back to the past.  Walking around certain parts of the park, I forgot that I was in the Middle East as the open expanse of ancient Roman architecture takes you out of the region.  Additionally, the only Arabs that I saw inside the park were employees while the rest of the park’s occupants were large groups of tourists from the United States, France, Germany, and Asia who were a part of travel programs that took them to the well known tourist sites in Egypt, Israel, and Jordan.

Reminding myself that the structures that I saw, such as Hadrian’s Arch, were in Jordan rather than Giancaldo, I marveled at how such an ancient empire had the ability to be so expansive and conquer so many distant lands and cultures; however, as I went into other parts of the park, I was able to see and feel how the ruins stood right in the middle of the city alongside the modern elements of Jersah.