Jerash

 

 

 

Jerash is known for the ruins of the Greco-Roman city of Gerasa, also referred to as Antioch on the Golden River. It is sometimes misleadingly referred to as the “Pompeii of the Middle East or Asia”, referring to its size, extent of excavation and level of preservation (though Jerash was never buried by a volcano). Jerash is considered one of the most important and best preserved Roman cities in the Near East. It was a city of the Decapolis.

 

 

 

Recent excavations show that Jerash was inhabited during the Bronze Age and Iron Age (3200 BC – 1200 BC. After the Roman conquest in 63 BC, Jerash and the land surrounding it were annexed by the Roman province of Syria, and later joined the Decapolis cities. In AD 90, Jerash was absorbed into the Roman province of Arabia, which included the city of Philadelphia (modern day Amman). The Romans ensured security and peace in this area which enabled its people to devote their efforts and time to economic development and building activity.

 

 

 

The Persian invasion in AD 614 caused the rapid decline of Jerash. However, the city continued to flourish during the Umayyad Period, as shown by recent excavations. In AD 746, a major earthquake destroyed much of Jerash and its surroundings. During the period of the Crusades, some of the monuments were converted to fortresses including the Temple of Artemis. Small settlements continued in Jerash during the Ayyubid, Mameluk and Ottoman periods. Excavation and restoration of Jerash has been almost continuous since the 1920s.

 

 

 

There are a large number of striking monuments located in Jerash: the Corinthium column, Hadrian’s Arch, a circus/hippodrome, two immense temples (to Zeus and Artemis), the nearly unique oval Forum which is surrounded by a fine colonnade, a long colonnaded street, two theatres (the Large South Theatre and smaller North Theatre), two baths, a scatter of small temples and an almost complete circuit of city walls. Most of these monuments were built by donations of the city’s wealthy citizens. From AD 350, a large Christian community lived in Jerash, and between AD 400-600, more than thirteen churches were built, many with superb mosaic floors. A cathedral was built in the fourth century A.D. An ancient synagogue with detailed mosaics, including the story of Noah, was found beneath a church.

 

 

 

The site now lies on a modern highway that links Amman with the northern boundary of the Kingdom towards Syria; the drive takes 40 minutes from Amman at a leisurely speed. As one approaches, it is after a corner of the highway that he is suddenly faced with a wonderful view of the ruins with the Triumphal Arch in the foreground. On the other side of the highway lies the modern town of Jerash. There is a bilingual inscription, almost illegible, in Nabataean and Greek, and other inscriptions refer to a temple of the “Holy God” Pakidas and the Arabian god. It can be deduced that this latter is Dushares, the Nabataean deity, and it is significant that the inscriptions referring to him and the “crowstep” stones are all found in the same area, i.e. the Cathedral and Fountain Court. There are known to be remains of an earlier temple beneath the Cathedral, in all probability that of the Arabian god, later identified with Dionysius.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other inscriptions found in the neighborhood of the Forum and Zeus Temple show us that in the first and probably second centuries B.C. the town extended at least from the Zeus Temple to the Cathedral area; yet others suggest it may even have included the area of the Artemis Temple. But until further excavation is undertaken, nothing more can be said about the town of the pre-Christian era. After visiting the site of Jerash, it inspires me to see how this city was run and I am motivated to relive this city of Jerash by building a simulation. This “Jerash” is not just a walkthrough media, but full of interactivities such as entering a building, watching a real live Roman theatre or even watch how these roads, pillars and roman buildings are built from scratch.

 

 

 

The ambition here is to build Jerash old city where every user has the free role of roaming around Jerash. Bringing back the ancient city to life is a task that I am looking for the most. It’s just like bringing someone back to life and it’s exciting when a famous site Jerash would be able to one day be revived in the virtual world. Users will be able to see plantations during its time and its historical roman buildings. The people in the city will be roaming around minding their business just like how it was like during its glory days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Basically a lot of sounds and songs will be played during the Menu section where you navigate yourself around the Jerash Simulation. There will be certain sites with an Info icon where once you click; it will display an informative media about the given site, building etc. You are able to walk freely in the Jerash environment and what you see in this application is roughly how Jerash was back then. What you are able to do is to witness the city rising from the dead with a video like simulation showing this ruin or this site use to be a temple but now it may look like this in present like this picture below as an example.

 

I would like to model the real Artemis Temple of how it was like during its day and while you are the site of the artemis temple in the simulation, you can actually click on it and it will show a video or a model o fthe current Artemis temple in present day where it is all in crumble and falling apart and user is able to view and move around the building to have a better view

 

Target Audience

 

A fine target audience would definitely for students who are taking history lesson on ancient Roman Civilization. They are able to understand more and learn the aspects of Jerash history that played its important role during the Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire and also during the occupation of the Caliphates. Kids at the age from 7 to 12 are not recommended for this application as they cannot really bear the information and simulation due to the lack of history studies. The elderly are mostly recommended where when they are not able to travel far, having them going through this simulation applicant of Jerash would help them re coup their understanding and interest of the ancient Jerash.

 

 

1) The goal here is to be able to have a simulation applicant of Jerash which would make it easier for people to understand more about its history and culture and how it has affected the civilization around the area.

 

 

2) It would be pleasure to help make Jerash a tourism spot and in a way to facilitate Jordan for tourism in which the country is so full of history. I would also love to have this project to be recognized by investors who really want to make this simulation applicant available for the public.

 

 

3) It is also with this application that will allow users to have the freedom to explore the Jerash environment to experience during the reign of the Roman Civilization and hope that “it” will capture the minds of the user and have that surprise and good feel of being immersed with the old city of Gerasa, Jerash. Users will be able to interact with certain parts and objects in the city of Jerash for example;

 

 

 

If the user wants to see a play in the Roman theatre he/she will have to click or initiate an action within the roman theatre premises that will program the play. Another example would be clicking on a building where it will show the current image of the building and be able to freely look around at the modern look of the crumbled building.

 

Objective

 

- To be able to have people to understand and have a better view of Jerash

 

- To relive Jerash itself of how it was as a civilization

 

- Have people understand how this city civilization

 

- May audience catch and felt immersed when users use the Jerash Simulation applicant

 

- To help and make users to immersed them through the simulation of the environment and capture the audio effects.

 

- Understanding the quality city of Jerash through the pop up and brief reading materials that are available.

 

- To ensure the users and to help them learn the old roman culture during its time

 

- To help users to feel, see and understand of the old Jerash City civilization.

- To have an easy access in witnessing Romans greatest city in the middle east area.

 

Benchmark

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

- A glimpse of how this Jerash may hopefully look like when it’s complete. Not so super solid as the above but as close and as good at it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Menu section and option section will be bench as this

 

Examples above. This is what we call it the trend of most

 

Games nowadays and hopefully by building this type of

 

Interface, it would show of a game like mode to show a

 

Bit of entertainment in the simulation by visuals like these.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

- This is are some examples of the benchmark for texturing the Jerash simulation

 

 

Description of Levels

 

Users will start of with a slow intro where he/she can skip it if he wants to. After that is done he will be able to see the main interface of the Menu section of the simulation and he can choose to “View” the simulation straightly or “Read” some facts and history of Jerash. Another section is optional which is the “Help me Play” section of how to use the application. Basically it gives a brief introduction of the application and also will guide by some helpful pop up wordings on how the user can navigate and interact with the objects in Jerash city or anywhere on the menu section.

 

 

Once the user is ready to view/play the simulation, he will first encounter with an overall map of Jerash where it is divided into sections of areas or counties of Jerash during at that time. From there he/she will have an overall view of the city of Jerash and he has the choice to choose where to go or to start his journey of immersing in Jerash. In this application if we we’re to follow the section of the city as levels, the South Gate area would be the first level of simulation but again, the user is freely to go any level he/she is willing to.

 

 

The south gate is supposedly the main entrance to the City of Jerash where a big entrance main gate is the main attraction in this level. The user will start of outside the gate where he/she will click on the gate so it will open and allow the user to enter the city. From here he is able to see the city with little range because he/she has to walk more up north to have a good glimpse of the city. On the way there, the use will able to see a fighters stadium on the left side where he/she (optional) would like to go in the stadium and watch the gladiators fight.

 

 

Interaction Description

 

Buildings – User are able to interact with certain buildings where whenever an icon is seen on a building, it will interact as a source for the user depending on the building background and a certain type of animation will be play

 

Narrator – Ever where there will be a sensor where a narration will talk over through your journey at certain points

 

Information – Certain information pop up likes will give you more depth information of the site

 

Users Interactions

 

- Able to navigate the world by using the arrow key and the mouse.

 

- Able to toggle to use the Map frequently to JUMP from level to other level.

 

- Certain places where the user walk, a pop up will show that this building/place/object is interactive able

 

- Along the user’s journey, a voice narration will be played every time the use crosses over a certain location that is set by a proximity sensor.

 

- User is able to go to menu options anytime during the simulation

 

 

 

 

References

 

www.wikipedia.org/jerash

 

http://almashriq.hiof.no/jordan/900/930/jerash/jerash.html

 

www.history.com

 

Jordan: Images from the Air by Jane Taylor

 

Jerash and the Decapolis by Iain Browning

 

 

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