Nymphaeum Gerasae

About

Gerasa finished this grand public fountain in 191 CE at the city's own expense, a two-storey facade with a half-domed apse opening onto the Cardo. Water spilled from seven carved lion heads into a basin at street level. Marble sheathed the lower storey and painted stucco covered the upper, traces of which survive. It postdates the 117 CE snapshot by 74 years, and the half-dome still holds its scalloped shell carving.

What happened here

This is where most of the town gets its water, and it runs continuously because the aqueduct cannot be switched off. A basin catches the flow, jars are filled from spouts, and the overflow goes into a channel that flushes the street. Queues form early and the fountain is where the neighbourhood's news circulates. The stonework wears into grooves where thousands of hands and rope have rested on the rim. Animals drink at a lower trough. Bigger show-fountains at street corners and road junctions are put up by magistrates and carry their names; the water is the gift and the inscription is the receipt. Blocking, fouling or tapping a public fountain is an offence people are actually prosecuted for.

In ancient writing

• Anonymous, Greek dedicatory inscription of the Nymphaeum, Gerasa dated 191 CE

  Names the city itself as the body that commissioned the fountain.

Sources

• https://universes.art/en/art-destinations/jordan/jerash/nymphaeum
• https://jerash.visitjordan.com/en/Site/77
• https://www.lonelyplanet.com/jordan/jerash-and-the-north/jerash/attractions/nymphaeum/a/poi-sig/1442858/361072

Nearby

Propylaea Artemisii

45 m

Templum Dionysi

79 m

Cardo Maximus Gerasae

108 m

Templum Artemidis

191 m

Odeum Gerasae

216 m

Muri Gerasae

320 m