Jordan: Past and Present: Petra, Jerash, Amman

by E. Borgia

Past and Present will be of particular interest to Western readers, who rarely have the opportunity to visit the ancient monuments of Petra, Jerash, and Amman. The archaeological history of the Kingdom of Jordan and of each of the three principal Jordanian sites are carefully and
clearly explained, and then each of the monuments-among them the Theater, Nymphaeum, Temenos Gate, and funerary monuments in Petra; the Arch of Hadrian, Sanctuary of Artemis, South Theater in Jerash; and the Temple of Hercules in Amman-are pictured as they exist today with overlays showing how they
likely looked when still intact.

Genres: History, Travel

76 pages, Spiral-bound

First published December 26, 2002

Reviews

[Yibbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good introduction the most prominent archaeological sights in Jordan. It's more a description of what is ruins are there, when they were built, and what they were originally. It has very
The pictures are good, clear, detailed, colorful, and good sized. The overlays with the artist representations were very helpful.
The only complaint I have is the maps are not very clear, especially, the ones about Petra. I ended up using the Google satellite map to get a better understanding how things were situated.

[Georgene · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great little book on the archaeological treasures in the Kingdom of Jordan. It covers Petra, Jerash in the north and Amman, the current capitol of Jordan. It has photos of quite a few of the ruins with heavy vinyl sheets over the photos that are printed with the parts of the ruins that are no longer extant. How such things are figured out is beyond me, but it does add a great deal of interest to the ruins themselves.

Only one point of irritation with this book: it is very difficult to read in bed. Minor point, I know, but I do quite a bit of reading at night and books need to be of a "comfortable" size and configuration for reading them in bed to work. Now I know why my dad would only read paperbacks in bed!

[Elizabeth Gabhart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting book that reconstructs three sites of ancient ruins. I love the clear sheets that overlay pictures of ruins, showing how the site would have looked thousands of years ago! I wish every archeology text had that feature.

[Stephanie Ann Marcotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good as far as guide books go. Lucky for me I have taken classes so I understand the architectural vocabulary that this book uses heavily but I had to look up some as well.