Umm Qais

Way up North of Jordan is this hilly countryside. There was a Roman settlement here as evidenced by the arena built with black basalt stone. Today it is abandoned but in its earlier days the Ottomans settled here and used the Roman stones as their building material. The columns of a temple is still left standing. So is the long and wide cobbled stone boulevard that was so characteristic of Roman presence. Umm QaIS is the new Jordanian name and is popular among the locals as a place for weekend picnics. But in the days of our Lord Jesus, the name was Gadara. Here as mentioned in Matthew 8:28 to 32, ' Jesus casts out demons and they sent into a flock of pigs who later rushed down the steep bank and into the sea...'