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Jerash is perhaps the best-preserved and most complete
provincial Roman city found in the world.Jerash is a most
spectacular  of  cities along  the  southeastern frontier of 
the Roman Empire, ten of which were  loosely allied in an
association  of cities  called the Decapolis. Jerash, called
Gerasa  in  Roman   times,  is  important  not  only  for  its 
individual  monuments ,  but  also  for  its  strict  and  well 
preserved  town plan ,  built around the colonnaded main
street  and  several  intersecting  side  streets .  Its  most 
noteworthy include  the Colonnaded street, or Cardo, the
South theater ,  the  Temple  of Zeus, the Oval Piazza, or 
Forum ,  Hadrian’s  Arch  ,  the  Nymphaeum, the Artemis 
Temple , the  South Gate and a smaller North Theater , or
Odeon. The city’s 14 churches with their fine mosaics all
date  from  the  Byzantine era,  when the eastern Roman
Empire looked to Constantinople for Political and  religious
authority.  Amongst  of the  ancient  churches  are  the church of  St. Theodore and  the Cathedral that remain in good  condition. Also  well preserved  the beautiful mosaic floors of the church of St.Cosmas and Damian. Within the city’s walls were found the remains of settlements dating from the Bronze Age, the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Umayyad and Abbasid periods,  indicating  human inhabitation at this location for more than 2.500 years.