Abila
Fifteen minutes by car north of Irbid are the scattered and largely buried remains of another Roman city, Abila, which may have formed part of the Decapolis at one time, the ruins of the city are spread over two large hills, with a massive but now hollow semi-circle in a hillside perhaps marking the spot of Abila 's ancient theater. An American team excavating the site during the past three years has started to piece together its history, which seems to have started 5,000 years ago with a small, walled Bronze Age town.Abila was a splendid Greco-Roman city for at least 300 years, from the first to third centuries, but continued its life as a Byzantine city with several churches. Its ancient necropolis, recently studied in detail by a French team, includes hundreds of beautifully painted Roman and Byzantine tombs.Large Corinthian capitals and column drums lie on the surface of the ground, alongside stretches of ancient wall lines and roads that pass among the collapsed stones of once monumental buildings. Like so many other ancient cities in Jordan, Abila is well sited on open hilltops surrounded by lush valleys. It makes an ideal picnic spot today, and can be combined with an all-day trip that also takes in Jerash, Umm Qais and Pella.