Al-Birketein Roman pools of Jerash (Gerasa)

The city of Jerash (Gerasa) is founded by Alexander the Great or one of his generals. Its name refers to “aged soldiers” who were probably its first inhabitants.

The city is conquered by the Romans and becomes a Roman province. The Romans ensured security and peace in the area, which allowed economic development and civic building activity (roads, arches, etc.) in the following centuries.

The water aqueducts connecting the Birketein’s double pools are constructed. The lavish nymphaeum of jerash is also constructed in 191 AD, together with many more waterworks that date this period (baths, fountains, etc.).

Following the city rise with the fortunes of the Antonines (in the 2nd c. AD), it lapsed with the decline of Roman power in the third century AD.

Rome’s Eastern provinces again revive when Constantinople becomes the capital. Byzantine Gerasa shares in the economic revival, inaugurating a new era of church-building and mosaic art. A large Christian community is formed.

Jerash is destroyed by a series of earthquakes as if to physically erase a thousand years of Hellenism in the Middle East. The site of ancient Gerasa lay deserted for the next thousand years, until rediscovered in the early nineteenth century.

Jerash site is discovered and systematically excavated ever since.