Decapolis in the context of "Judaea (Roman province)"

Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and both Israel and Palestine (West Bank) to the west. The Jordan River, flowing into the Dead Sea, is located along the country's western border within the Jordan Rift Valley. Jordan has a small coastline along the Red Sea in its southwest, separated by the Gulf of Aqaba from Egypt. Amman is the country's capital and largest city, as well as the most populous city in the Levant.

Inhabited by humans since the Paleolithic period, three kingdoms developed in Transjordan during the Iron Age: Ammon, Moab and Edom. In the third century BC, the Arab Nabataeans established their kingdom centered in Petra. The Greco-Roman period saw the establishment of several cities in Transjordan that comprised the Decapolis. After the end of Byzantine rule, the region became part of the Islamic caliphates of the Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, and the Ottoman. Following the 1916 Great Arab Revolt during World War I, former Ottoman Syria was partitioned, leading to the establishment of the Emirate of Transjordan in 1921, which became a British protectorate. In 1946, Jordan gained independence and became officially known as the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Jordan captured and annexed the West Bank during the 1948 Palestine war until it was occupied by Israel in 1967. Jordan renounced its claim to the territory to the Palestinians in 1988 and signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994.

Jerash or Jarash (Arabic: جرش, romanized: Ǧaraš, Arabic pronunciation: [dʒa.raʃ]; Greek: Γέρασα, romanized: Gérasa, Attic Greek pronunciation: [ɡérasa], Koine Greek pronunciation: [ˈɡerasa]) is a city in northern Jordan. The city is the administrative center of the Jerash Governorate, and has a population of 50,745 as of 2015. It is located 30.0 miles (48.3 kms) north of the capital city Amman.

The earliest evidence of settlement in Jerash is in a Neolithic site known as Tal Abu Sowan, where rare human remains dating to around 7500 BC were uncovered. Jerash flourished during the Greek, Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine periods, when it was known as Gerasa. It was one of the cities of the Hellenistic cities of the Decapolis. It was an important city in early Christian times and its early churches, some of which were formerly temples, include notable examples of the evolution of church architecture. In the mid-eighth century the 749 Galilee earthquake destroyed large parts of it, and subsequent earthquakes contributed to additional destruction.

Amman is the capital and the largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of five million as of 2024, Amman is Jordan's primate city and is the largest city in the Levant region, the fifth-largest city in the Arab world, and the sixth-largest metropolitan area in the Middle East.

Amman is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The earliest evidence of settlement in Amman dates to the 8th millennium BC in 'Ain Ghazal, home to the world's oldest statues of the human form. During the Iron Age, the city was known as Rabat Aman, the capital of the Ammonite Kingdom. In the 3rd century BC, the city was renamed Philadelphia and became one of the ten Greco-Roman cities of the Decapolis. Later, in the 7th century AD, the Rashidun Caliphate renamed the city Amman. Throughout most of the Islamic era, the city alternated between periods of devastation and periods of relative prosperity. Amman was largely abandoned during the Ottoman period from the 15th century until 1878, when it was resettled by Circassians. The city grew after it was connected to the Hejaz Railway in 1904, leading to the formation of its first municipal council in 1909.

Perea or Peraea (Greek: Περαία, "the country beyond") was the term used mainly during the early Roman period for part of ancient Transjordan. It lay broadly east of Judea and Samaria, which were situated on the western side of the Jordan River, and southwest of the Decapolis.

Perea was part of the kingdom of Herod the Great and his descendants, and later of subsequent Roman provinces that included Iudaea.

Palaestina Secunda or Palaestina II was a province of the Byzantine Empire from 390, until its conquest by the Muslim armies in 634–636. Palaestina Secunda, a part of the Diocese of the East, roughly comprised inland Galilee, the Jezreel (Yizrael) Valley, Bet Shean Valley, and the corresponding area of Transjordan (parts of the former Decapolis, with the southern territories of the Golan plateau and the bishopric of Pella south of the Yarmuk River), with its capital in Scythopolis (Bet Shean). The province experienced the rise of Christianity under the Byzantines, but was also a thriving center of Judaism, after the Jews had been driven out of Judea by the Romans as a result of their 1st- and 2nd-century revolts.

The history of Jordan refers to the history of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the background period of the Emirate of Transjordan under the British Mandate as well as the general history of the region of Transjordan.

There is evidence of human activity in Transjordan as early as the Paleolithic period. The area was settled by nomadic tribes in the Bronze Age, which consolidated in small kingdoms during the Iron Age. In the classic period, Transjordan came under Greek and later Roman influence. Under the Romans and the Byzantines, Transjordan was home to the Decapolis in the north, with much of the region being designated as Byzantine Arabia. Classical kingdoms located in the region of Transjordan, such as the Roman-era Nabatean kingdom, which had its capital at Petra, left particularly dramatic ruins popular today with tourists and filmmakers. The history of Transjordan continued with the Muslim empires starting in the 7th century, partial crusader control in the mid-Middle Ages (country of Oultrejordain) and finally, Mamluk rule from the 13th century and Ottoman rule between the 16th century and the First World War.

Gadara (Hebrew: גדר, romanized: Geder or Hebrew: גדרה, romanized: Gedera; Greek: Γάδαρα, romanized: Gádara), in some texts Gedaris, was an ancient Hellenistic city in what is now Jordan, for a long time member of the Decapolis city league, a former bishopric and present Latin Catholic titular see.

Its ruins are today located at Umm Qais, a small town in the Bani Kinanah Department and Irbid Governorate in Jordan, near its borders with Israel and Syria. It stood on a hill 378 metres (1,240 ft) above sea level overlooking the Yarmouk River gorge, with the Golan Heights and the Sea of Galilee well visible to the north and northwest.