Jerash Walking Tour

Free Jerash Walking Tour with Roamee Pro

Roamee Pro, also known as Roamee, offers a free Jerash walking tour with audio narration. Use it to explore Oval Forum, Cardo Maximus, Temple of Artemis, plus hidden gems like North Theater and Hadrian's Arch without booking a group tour.

This Jerash walking tour is built for travelers searching for a audio guide, a free walking route, or the Roamee app for Jerash. Start with Oval Forum and Cardo Maximus, then branch into local context, photo spots, and neighborhood stories as you walk.

• •Oval Forum — This unique oval-shaped Roman plaza, measuring roughly 80 by 90 meters, is surrounded by 56 Ionic columns and paved with limestone slabs arranged in a radiating pattern from the center. Its shape is unusual in Roman architecture, where forums were typically rectangular, and scholars debate whether it was designed to accommodate a pre-existing difference in axis between the Cardo Maximus and the Temple of Zeus, or whether it served as a marketplace where the oval shape facilitated the circulation of merchants and customers.
• •Cardo Maximus — The colonnaded main street stretches 800 meters from the Oval Forum to the North Gate, its limestone paving still bearing the ruts carved by chariot and cart wheels over centuries of use. Originally lined with over 500 Corinthian columns, many still standing, the street's underground drainage system of vaulted channels remains intact, and at major intersections elaborate tetrapylon monuments marked the crossing points with secondary streets, their carved pedestals still in place.
• •Temple of Artemis — Dedicated to the patron goddess of Gerasa, this monumental 2nd-century temple sits atop a hillside platform reached by a grand staircase, its remaining 11 Corinthian columns standing 13 meters tall and visibly swaying in strong winds, demonstrating the earthquake-resistant flexibility the Roman engineers built into the design. The temple precinct originally included a sacred enclosure larger than a football field, reflecting the enormous wealth and civic pride of Roman Gerasa at its zenith.
• •South Theater — This exceptionally well-preserved Roman theater, built during the reign of Emperor Domitian in the late 1st century AD, seated approximately 3,000 spectators in 32 rows of limestone seats, with the upper rows offering views of the entire city and surrounding hills. The stage building's carved niches and columns survive in remarkable detail, and the theater's acoustics remain so effective that the Royal Jordanian Army band and visiting performers use it for concerts during the annual Jerash Festival.

• •North Theater — This smaller, more intimate theater originally served as the city's odeon (council chamber and performance hall) for an audience of about 1,600, and its sheltered location on the northern slope has preserved carved seats with Greek numerical inscriptions marking reserved sections for city officials and guild members. It is less visited than the South Theater but often hosts impromptu performances by local musicians during the Jerash Festival.
• •Hadrian's Arch — This imposing triumphal arch standing 11 meters tall was erected in 129 AD to commemorate the visit of Emperor Hadrian to Gerasa during his grand tour of the eastern provinces. Originally intended as a new southern gate, the planned city expansion to encompass it never materialized, leaving the arch standing in isolation 460 meters south of the actual city walls, its carved acanthus leaves and Corinthian capitals remarkably crisp after nearly two millennia.