Jordan - Umm al-Jimal

Umm el-Jimal is located in the semi-arid region of north Jordan, on the edge of the basalt plain created by prehistoric volcanic eruptions from the slopes of the Jebel Druze, whose peaks are visible on clear winter days fifty km to the north in southern Syria. The great Roman highway, the Via Nova Traiana constructed AD 112-14 during Trajan’s rule ,passes Umm el-Jimal 6 km to the west on its way from Bostra to Philadelphia (Amman).It is best viewed where it crosses the road between Umm el-Jimal and Umm es-Surab, at a point about one km west of Qasr el-Ba’ij, a ten minute drive west of Umm el-Jimal.Umm el-Jimal itself lay on a side road that left the Via Nova at Qasr el-Ba’ij, and went on to Um el-Quttein and Deir el-Kahf to the east. This side road was part of a network of secondary roads that connected the Southerm Hauran’s towns and villages with major market centers like Bostra and Suweida, and the desert oasis of Azraq. The Village’s remains are visible today as a three to four hundred metre diameter oval of moonscape rubble on the gentle slope two hundred meters east of the southeast corner of the still standing town .Umm el-Jimal nestles in a fork created by the joining of two wadis (dry riverbeds) that bring the runoff waters from the lower slopes of the Jebel Druze History Umm el-Jimal was occupied for 700 years from the 1st Century AD to the 8th Century.