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.