Bored to Death II

This summer, it’s best to indulge ourselves with proper music. Music soothes our souls. Now, I have been indulging myself with these albums:

1. Album: BACCANO! Original Soundtrack Spiral MelodiesArtiste: Makoto Yoshimori
Catalogue No.: SVWC-7499
My pick: Almost all of the tracks!
By the way, it's anime series were great. After watching Durarara!!, I watched Baccano! Both are adaptation of two Ryohgo Narita's light novels.

2. Album: MONKEY MAJIK BEST ~10 Years & Forever~Artiste: MONKEY MAJIK
Catalogue No.: AVCH-78014
My pick: Change, Together & Fast Forward

Jerash, Part VII: The Propylaeum, The Nyphaeum & The Oval Plaza

After wandering around the Temple of Artemis, we descent through the steps at the Temple Esplanade to Propylaeum below. They said, ancient inhabitants of Gerasa offered their sacrifice here.

This is Nymphaeum, a structure built for nymphs (lesser natural goddess in Greek mythology – equivalent to 'kami' in Shintoism). Usually, they have fountain at the centre.

Here’s a crowd of elderly, most of them wearing red. Are they Opus Dei follower? They spoke Italian though, and the tour guide explained to them in Italian.

Jerash is regarded as ‘Rome away from Rome.’ The ancient city has almost the characteristics of ancient Roman cities. Here’s the Roman Oval Piazza.

Left: Cardo Maximus
Right: The Oval Piazza. Notice the a column at the centre.

We walked from the Nymphaeum to the Oval Plaza via the Cardo Maximus. The Plaza measures about 90 x 80 m. It is surrounded by colonnade and it has column at its centre. The column is used to hold the flame for Jerash Festival which is held every July each year.

Jerash, Part VI: Temple of Artemis

After visiting the Roman amphitheatre of Gerasa, we walked uphill to go to the Temple of Artemis. On the way there, we passed the The Cardo.

The Cardo or more commonly Colonnaded Street

Temple of Artemis. Artemis is Greek; Romans called her Diana.

Artemis was perceived as the patron goddess for the ancient city. The temple was built during the reign of Emperor Antonius Pius (one of the ‘Five Good Emperors,’ if you know Roman history) at the highest point of Gerasa.

As seen from the Temple Esplanade.

The ruin of the temple… Well, I am not good at describing it, but I can say that it has five Corinthian column façade. That leaves another five still standing. They said the carvings at the top of the columns are amongst the beautiful historical Corinthian columns in the world.

Wow. Seems that they were deliberately cut and stack upon each other.

Not many Malaysian reached here since it’s quite far (according to Malaysians’ standard) from the site’s entrance, but its location only marks the first two half of the entire site. You only reach the farthest part of the Gerasa once you reached North Gate.

Before leaving the site, we took a breathtaking view near the ruin of Umayyad settlement. It’s a ‘wow!’

At the Temple Esplanade.

Jerash, Part V: Amphitheatre

Like any usual Roman historical site, usually there’s a Roman amphitheatre. It can accommodate around 3000 people at one time. Well, if you wanna get more info, you can pretty much Google it.

There’s a musical performance inside conducted by two Jordanians, wearing military suit. It’s a military bagpipe play. It’s free but of course, you should chip in some donation, dude. Don’t get me wrong, it ain’t a street performance. Perhaps, it's a courtesy performance from the Ancient Jerash authority.

The stage.

When we entered the amphitheatre, the performers were relaxing and brewing some tea. But, when we left the place and some Western visitors come in, they started to play. We felt ignored.