Pella
One of the 10 cities of the Decapolis
Pella (known in Arabic as Tabaqat Fahl (طبقة فحل)) is a village and the site of ancient ruins in northwestern Jordan. 78 km north of Amman, Pella is located in the Jordan valley some 130 km north of Amman, and the site has been continuously occupied since Neolithic times. First mentioned in the 19th century BC in Egyptian inscriptions, its name was Hellenised to Pella, perhaps to honor Alexander the Great's birthplace. The Roman city, of which some spectacular ruins remain, supplanted the Hellenistic city. During this period Pella was one of the cities making up the Decapolis. The city was the site of one of Christianity's earliest churches. According to Eusebius of Caesarea it was a refuge for Jerusalem Christians in the 01st century AD who was fleeing the Jewish–Roman wars; the city proper was destroyed by the Golan earthquake of 749. A small village remains in the area. Only small portions of the ruins have been excavated.
In 635 the first victory of the new Islamic army over the Byzantines occurred near Pella, followed a year later by another victory near the Yarmouk River further north. Pella was a thriving Umayyad town for just over 100 years, with an attractive residential area on the hill. Some fine Umayyad pottery has been found here, made in the Jerash kilns. the site continued to be occupied in the Abbasid and Mamluk periods, but it was this time smaller and more rural community. A mud brick village still stood on the hill until 1967-68, when the villagers moved further down the hill to avoid Israeli air raids.
Although not as spectacular as Jerash, Pella is far more important to archaeologists because it has revealed evidence of 6000 years of settlement, from the Stone Age through to medieval Islamic ruins.
Whatever you think about history you can see it in Pella; it’s a Journey through thousands of years of history in lands still stand.