---
type: Place
title: Jerash
description: Jordan's great Roman city, half an hour from Amman — a hippodrome, a theatre with intact acoustics, and a stranger who guides them round for nothing and won't take a penny.
tags: [jordan, jerash, roman, ruins, day-trip, hospitality, food, jordan-pass]
coordinates: {lat: 32.2812, lng: 35.9010}
timestamp: 2026-08-07T15:40:00Z
---

# Jerash

A Roman city in northern [Jordan](/countries/jordan.md) — described on camera as
the Roman capital of the region and one of its biggest cities — sitting directly
alongside the modern town. Harry's framing is the split: **the old city on one
side, the modern city on the other**, in view of each other.

## Getting there

- **About half an hour from [Amman](/places/amman.md)**, which is what he
  recommends: a good day trip from the capital.
- **About an hour and a half from the [Dead Sea](/places/dead-sea.md)**, which is
  how he arrives.
- **Entry is covered by the Jordan Pass.** He restates the case for it here —
  it has made everything easier, it is worth it if you are going to
  [Petra](/places/petra.md), and the visa on arrival comes with it. See
  [get the Jordan Pass](/tips/get-the-jordan-pass.md).

## The site

- **The hippodrome**, which is the first thing they reach.
- **A Roman theatre with its acoustics intact** — the thing worth staying for.
  Harry tests it by speaking from the floor and is audibly surprised at how well
  it carries.
- **It is busy with tourists**, which he remarks on for its own sake: after two
  years of visiting places with nobody in them, seeing tourism working again is
  something he is pleased about rather than annoyed by.

## The guide they didn't pay for

**They decline a paid guide to save money** — the second day running they have
done this — and then a man on the site attaches himself to them anyway, shows
them round, and refuses payment.

What Harry says about him is the useful part: **the value wasn't the history, it
was that he knew where the good spots were.** He calls him the best tour guide
they have ever had, and the man's own framing is simply that he is being
friendly. He also offers to hand over items and take photographs for nothing,
repeating *no money* each time.

Harry reads it as of a piece with the country: he says he was not expecting
anyone to give things away for free, and that this is what people here are like.
The man is not named here — he gives a very common first name, one appearance,
and nothing published.

See [travel with a local guide](/tips/travel-with-a-local-guide.md), where this
sits directly against the previous day's regret in Amman.

## Food

They ask their taxi driver where to eat and are taken somewhere he rates —
arriving during prayer time, when service may pause.

- **A full Arabic spread**: spicy rice, beans and rice, chicken, lamb kebab with
  sesame sauce, something in tomato sauce, pasta, hummus, and fresh warm
  flatbread.
- **Hummus with whole chickpeas mixed through it**, which Mac recommends as the
  combination and which converts Harry — only his second time eating it.
- **The Jordanian white sauce** turns up again, as it has at every meal of the
  trip; nobody in the video can name it.
- **Jordanian sweets**, brought out unasked, including a small fried
  pastry Harry compares to a doughnut. It is not named on camera.

## Harry's tips

- **Do it as a day trip from Amman**, not as a base.
- **Ask your driver where to eat.** It produced the best meal of the trip so far.
- **Stand in the middle of the theatre and talk.**
- **You may not need to pay for a guide here** — though see the Amman citadel
  the day before, where declining one cost them.

## Source videos

- [Secret tour guide in JERASH, JORDAN🇯🇴](/videos/IYzfrPancvA.md) —
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYzfrPancvA