 coceng's Umm Qays Travelogues | | | |
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| Page Views: 108 Last Visit to Umm Qays: April, 2005 | THE 10 CITIES OF DECAPOLIS... by coceng - last update: Jul 13, 2005 |
The traditional names of the :Ten Cities of the Decapoliscome from The Roman historian Pliny The Elder. These cities were/are :
1. Gerasa (Jerash, in the northern Jordan)
2. Scythopolis (Beth-Shean in Israel, the only Decapolis city on the western side ofthe Jordan river)3. Hippos (Hippus or Sussita)
4. Gadara (Um Qais, in the northern Jordan)
5. Pella
6. Philadelphia (modern day Amman, the capital of Jordan)
7. Dion
8. Canatha
9. Raphana
10. Damascus (the capital of modern Syria; Damascus was considerably north of theothers and so is sometimes thought to have been an 'honorary' member).
During my first Middle Eastern trip, I managed to visit 4 of The Decapolis cities as above ! Please click on the links...
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The Decapolis (Greek: deka, ten; polis, city) was a group of 10 cities set during the 1st century AD.
They were grouped together because of their language, culture, location, and political status.
The Romans strongly left their cultural stamp on all of the cities. Each one was eventually rebuilt with a Roman-style grid of streets based around a central cardo and/or decumanus...
There were Roman commercial cities which were linked to one another by paved roads that allowed wagons & chariots to be navigated on them.
At least in Jerash & Um Qais, the ruts carved by these wagons & chariots can still be seen !
These cities fell into decline during The Umayyad dynasty, which was based at that time in Damascus.
Most of the cities continued into the late Roman and Byzantine periods. Some were abandoned in the years following Palestine's conquest by the Umayyad Caliphate in 641, but others continued long into the Islamic period.
Jerash and Bet She'an survive as towns today, while Damascus and Amman have become important capital cities ! |
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 Comments for coceng about Umm Qays | | | | |
Nicholas168 Sun Jun 3, 2007 19:08 UTC
Just let u know the bus condctor money collector who impolitly acted and cheated u I,m sure wasn't native jordanian !!! rather one of the refugee who enjoy's looking at there home land from the uum qyis mountine | matcrazy1 Thu Mar 16, 2006 16:09 UTC
Interesting stories, info and certailnly the Beautiful Sunset Over Um Qais :-) |
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