[p.253]towns of the Decapolis, although this position does not at all
agree with that given to Gerasa from the ancient authorities by
D'Anville, who places it to the north-east of the lake of Tiberias,
forty miles to the north-westward of this place. The ruins are nearly an
hour and a quarter in circumference, following insulated fragments of
the walls, which were upwards of eight feet in thickness, and built of
square hewn stones of middling size; I could not judge of their original
heighth, as the upper parts were every where demolished.
I shall now enumerate the principal curiosities of Djerash, agreeably to
the annexed plan, which may give a general idea of the whole; for its
accuracy in regard to distances I do not mean to vouch, as I had, at
most, only four hours to make my survey, and it was with great
difficulty that I could persuade my three companions to wait so long for
me. None of them would accompany me through the ruins, on account of
their fear of the Bedouins, who are in the habit of visiting this Wady,
they therefore concealed themselves beneath the trees that overshade the
river. The first object that strikes the attention in coming from Souf,
after passing the town-wall, is a temple (a). Its main body consists of
an oblong square, the interior of which is about twenty-five paces in
length, and eighteen in breadth. A double row, of six columns in each
row, adorned the front of the temple; of the first row five columns are
yet standing, of the second, four; and on each side of the temple there
remains one column belonging to the single row of pillars that
surrounded the temple on every side except the front. Of these eleven
columns nine are entire, and two are without capitals. Their style of
architecture is much superior to that of the great colonnade hereafter
to be mentioned, and seems to belong to the best period of the
Corinthian order, their capitals being beautifully ornamented with the
acanthus leaves. The shafts are composed of five or six pieces, and are
seven spans and a half in diameter,
[p.254]and thirty-five to forty feet in heighth. I was unable to
ascertain the number of columns in the flanks of the peristyle. The
temple stands upon an artificial terrace elevated five or six feet above
the ground. The interior of the temple is choaked with the ruins of the
roof; a part of the front wall of the cella has fallen down; but the
three other sides are entire. The walls are wthout ornament; on the
interior of each of the two side walls, and about mid-way from the
floor, are six niches, of an oblong shape, and quite plain: in the back
wall, opposite to the door, is a vaulted recess, with a small dark
chamber on each side. The upper part of a niche is visible on the
exterior of the remains of the front wall, with some trifling but
elegantly sculptured ornaments. This ruin stands within a peribolus or
large area surrounded by a double row of columns. The whole edifice
seems to have been superior in taste and magnificence to every public
building of this kind in Syria, the temple of the Sun at Palmyra
excepted. On the two sides marked (x) of the colonnade of the peribolus
many bases and broken shafts of the inner row of columns are yet
standing; on the two other sides there are but few; these columns are
three spans and a half in diameter. On the long side (x) forty columns
may be traced to have stood, at only three paces distant from each
other; on the opposite long side one perfect column is yet standing; on
the short side (x) are three in the outer row without their capitals.
The corner columns of this peribolus were double, and in the shape of a
heart, as in the annexed figure. Of the outer row of the peribolus very
little remains; indeed it may be doubted whether any outer row ever
existed opposite to the back of the temple, where the ground is rocky
and uneven. The number of columns which originally adorned the temple
and its area was not less than two hundred or two hundred and fifty.