I next proceed to take a further general view of this celebrated locality—­celebrated, for here are the most noted ruins east of the Jordan.  My first observation is that the present inhabitants, Circassians, are rapidly despoiling the treasures of antiquity found here.  They take the rocks and pillars of temples that were once the admiration of a great region and pile them roughly together, forming a small enclosure; then, in many instances, they place poles and brush across the top, throw ground on the brush,—­ and their houses are ready for occupancy.  There is no regularity whatever in the plan of the alleys, or lanes, of the present village.  We mount our horses for a further study of these interesting ruins.

Gerasa was one of the chief cities of the Decapolis, (the other nine were Damascus, Hippos, Scythopolis, Dion, Pella, Kanatha, Raphana, Gadara, and Philadelphia,) and was situated twenty miles east of the Jordan on one of the northern tributaries of the Jabbok, and within five miles of the place where the famous “Moabite Stone” was found.  Tristam considers it to-day as “Probably the most perfect Roman city left above ground.”  The present ruins seem to date back to the second century of the Christian era.  A Christian bishop from Gerasa attended the Council of Seleucia in 359 A.D., and another that of Chalcedon in 451 A.D.  In the thirteenth century this city was in ruins.  It was then for five centuries lost to the eyes of the civilized world.  In the beginning of the thirteenth century a German traveler visited it; the magnificent ruins of the place amazed him.  The same ruins to-day, or some of them, strike the comparatively few visitors with awe at the thought of the riches, the gayety, and the power that once reigned here on the border of the desert.

The walls of the ancient city are plainly traceable, and formed an enclosure about a mile square.  Three of its gates are fairly well preserved.  On the south side of the city ruins, less than a half mile distant, stands a triumphal arch forty feet high.  Between this arch and the city wall are the ruins of a great stone pool and of a circus.  The main street lies on the west side of the stream.  It was paved; yet shows ruts worn into the stones by chariot wheels; and was lined on each side with a row of rock columns above twenty feet in height, some of which have capitals representing a high degree of artistic skill in their planning and execution.  Part of this street was arcaded behind the columns where was the sidewalk.  Fronting upon this street were vast temples and baths, which, though fallen, are yet grand in their ruins.  All along this way lie great blocks of stone and marble and fallen columns, so numerous that at times our progress is almost barred.  But not all of the columns are fallen; more than two hundred yet stand on their original bases.  About mid-way along the street it is crossed at right angles by another which is also lined with columns.  Farther on toward the south it widens into an oval-shaped forum a hundred yards long, surrounded with Ionic pillars in their original positions.