252
DJERASH.
Djerash. I counted upwards of fifty sarcophagi, and there were
many more ; they are formed of the calcareous stone with which
the Zoueit and Moerad mountains are composed. Some of them
are sunk to a level with the surface of the ground, which is very
rocky ; others appear to have been removed from their original
position. The largest was ten spans in length, and three and a
half in breadth; but the greater part are much smaller, and are
not even large enough to contain the corpse of a full grown person. ¬
On the sides of a few of them are sculptured ornaments in
bas-relief, as festoons, genii, &c. but in a mutilated state, and not
remarkable for beauty of execution; I saw only one that was elegantly -
wrought. The whole of these sarcophagi had flat covers, a
few of which still remain. Upon one of the largest of the sarcophagi, -
and which is one of those first met with in going from
Souf, is a long inscription, but so mutilated as to be almost wholly
illegible. In the neighbourhood are several heaps of large square
stones, the remains of some building.
In an hour and a half from Souf we reached the city walls of Djerash, ¬
or Kerash, (5), the Dj being the Bedouin pronunciatioń of
the letter , which in the language of the city corresponds with
our K. Djerash was built upon an elevated plain in the mountains ¬
of Moerad, on uneven ground, on both sides of Wady Deir,
which, besides the name of Kerouan (5), bears also that of Seil
Djerash (), or the river of Djerash. This river empties
itself, at a short distance from the town, into the Wady Zerka
), probably the Jabock of the ancients. The principal part
of the city stands on the right bank of the river, where the surface
is more level than on the opposite side, although the right bank is
steeper than the other. The present ruins prove the magnitude
and importance of the ancient city ; and the modern name leads to
the belief that it was the ancient Gerasa, one of the principal
