Jaresh, Jordan provides a quite striking contrast between the past and the present. On one side of the street you can see the current city. On the other side of the street you can see the ruins of a Roman city. The Roman city had a hippodrome, two theaters, two temples, a forum, bridges, etc. The engineering is actually quite remarkable. You can find manhole covers leading to the drainage system under the road which carried water to a reservoir. The columns were build to withstand earthquakes. In fact, I was able to capture a video of someone moving a pillar. Their understanding of acoustics when building their theaters always amazes me. Yet, despite their intellectual marvels, they could be incredibly cruel and perverse - an very interesting dichotomy. Below are just a few of the pictures from the site.
After a huge and very good Jordan lunch, we drove toward the Allenby bridge connecting Jordan and Israel. However, before we crossed over into Israel we had the unique opportunity to look at an undoing dig. The dig is part of the Sodom Tall el-Hammam Archaeological Excavation which is an attempt to find a more likely location of Sodom north of the Dead Sea instead of South of the Dead Sea as is often assumed.
One reason an alternative site for Sodom is being sought is the Lot selected the best land to dwell in. The area south of the Dead Sea is not nearly as good as the land surrounding this dig north of the Dead Sea. These last two pictures show the land from the dig site.
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Location:Jaresh and Hammam
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