Damascus - Bosra – Jerash – Amman, Jordan

This morning we set off for Amman, Jordan with stops at the ruins in Bosra, Syria and Jerash, Jordan en route. Our first stop, Bosra, boasts “one of the best, preserved Roman theaters in existence” and it was very impressive!! We cruised around the fortress halls and saw the massive theater, which remains in excellent condition. Consistent with most of the other tourist attractions in Syria, we had the place to ourselves. It was quite a spectacular site to see the dramatic stage and the steep rows of seating where 9000 people enjoyed performances since the 2nd century AD.
We checked out the remains of the old Roman town and then got back on the road and headed towards Jordan. The border crossing went rather smoothly. We bought our Syria departure ticket at a food stall (what the heck?), went through several check points and exited Syria where the official tossed our passports at us. That was not the nicest farewell. Entering Jordan was a little more involved. We had to take everything out of our car so the officers could do a semi-thorough inspection. They didn’t manage to find all of the packs of cigarettes our driver had purchased at duty-free and mischievously stashed throughout his vehicle. It was a fairly slow process but thankfully we were crossing on a weekend and there weren’t any lines!
Our first stop in Jordan was Jerash where the ruins are one of Jordan’s major attractions. According to my Lonely Planet book, the ruins are “one of the best examples in the Middle East of a Roman provincial city, and is remarkably well preserved.” We found it amusing that we saw more tourists at Jerash in the parking lot than we saw the whole time we were in Syria. We are turning into ruin snobs because we weren’t as impressed by Jerash as we have been at other sites, but it is still fascinating to imagine what 15,000 – 20,000 inhabitants did in this city on a daily basis 2000 years ago! We checked out the site then continued on to Amman.