GERASA, an ancient city of Palestine in the highlands of Gilead, 20 m. N of `Amman (Philadelphia) and 20 M. E. of the Jordan (mod. Jerash). The city, now ruined, is pleasantly situated in a valley through which runs a perennial stream, the Chrysor rhoas of the Greeks, to fall into the Zerka (Jabbok) 6 m. to the south. The site is undulating and strewn with knolls offering excellent positions for public buildings, a circumstance of which the Roman architects took full advantage, as their structures, magnificent even in ruin, testify. Since 1878 a colony of Cir cassians has occupied the site, or rather a small portion of it. The building materials for their village on the eastern bank of the stream have been extracted from the ruins, the bulk of which lie on the western bank. The delightful orchard gardens of Jerash make it one of the pleasantest towns in all Palestine.
Nothing, up to the present at any rate, is known of the history of the city in Old Testament times or earlier, al though the site was very probably occupied, unless, indeed, it represents Ramoth Gilead, as has been suggested. Iamblichus asserts that it was originally colonized by veterans of Alexander the Great. Josephus tells us that it was captured by Alexander Jannaeus (c. 83 B.e.), rebuilt by the Romans (c. A.D. 65), burned by the Jews, and subsequently desolated and burned by Vespasian's captain, Annius. From the time of Trajan it belonged to the Roman province of Syria, but about A.D. 160 it was allotted to the province of Arabia, and during the peaceful reign of the Antonines (13o-18o), it was adorned with magnificent buildings and rose rapidly in importance and prosperity. It was the second city of the Decapolis and early in Christian times became the see of a bishop. To the Talmud and Jerome Gerdsa and Gilead were synonymous, and similarly Mukkadsi calls Jebel `Ajlun, Jebel Jerash, Tughtakin, the atabeg of Damascus, had here a castle which was taken and destroyed by Baldwin II. (1120. The Arabic geographer, Yakut, on the evidence of an eye-witness, reports it in ruins at the beginning of the 13th century. The "Gerasenes" of Matthew viii. 28 were not natives of Gerasa, as might be thought, but must be sought elsewhere (Khersa ?) .
Of the many beautiful architectural monu ments beyond Jordan, the fruit of Roman administration, the ruined grandeur of Gerasa supplies the finest. Laid out on a definite scheme with colonnaded main and cross streets, we find in it an early example of enlightened town planning. The city was surrounded by walls, 8 ft. thick, with a total circuit of 3,000 yd., and had six gates, the principal ones being north and south. The stream, near to which and roughly parallel to it ran the main street, divided the city in two, but the main public build ings were on the western bank and on the western side of the road. The approach to Jerash from the south passes a triumphal arch 30o yd. from the south gate. Between this and the gate on the left hand side are the ruins of a naumachia or tank for naval displays (170 yd. by 6o yd.) and contiguous to it a stadium (I oo yd. by 6o yd.) . Within the walls the main ob jects of interest are a fine peripteral temple, a theatre (south) ir: a good state of preservation, a colonnaded loop in the road, generally, but doubtfully, regarded as the forum, a basilica or senate house, the great sun temple, a tetrapylon at the cross roads, and a theatre (north). But the outstanding feature of the site is undoubtedly the profusion of columns, of which over 200 still stand. "A catalogue of the visible monuments alone can convey little impression of their supreme beauty from the point of view of classical art, and not only are the buildings in themselves triumphs of architecture, but they are strikingly placed so that each one meets the eye as a distinct feature, while from the distance they compose themselves readily into a single harmonious picture." The decay of the city is partly due to changed climatic conditions bringing lack of water, partly to political vicissitudes and partly and especially to seismic dis turbances.
The Trans-Jordan Government in 1926 cleared the main street and retrieved and consolidated dangerous parts of the ruins. Excavation has begun on the temple area, and tourists are given facilities to visit Jerash by the Government.
See Sir C. Warren, in Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible; and F. Bull, in Encyclopaedia of Isldm (bibl.) ; E. Huntington, Palestine and its Transformation (1911) ; H. Guthe, Das Land der Bibel, ii. 1, 2 (1919) ; J. Garstang, in Cook's Handbook for Syria and Palestine 478 seq. (1924)• (E. Ro.) G T' RBA : see JERBA.
