Gerasa: Overall view, ruins west of the oval plaza, near the Temple of Dushares-Dionysus

Gerasa is the best-preserved Palestinian city of Roman times. Gerasa first rose to importance as Antioch-on-the-Chrysorrhoas (Golden River) during Hellenistic and Roman times. Its location between Pella and Philadelphia ensured its continued prosperity as one of the cities of the Decapolis in Roman Syria. Captured by Alexander Jannaeus, king of Hasmonean dyansty in 83 BCE; was rebuilt by Romans in 65 CE. It flourished in the 2nd and 3rd centuries and was an important center in the development of Christianity. It was under Byzantine administration from ca. 330 to ca. 614. It was devastated by a major earthquake ca. 746.