Pella - Jordan

Pella, Jordan, known in Arabic as Tabaqat Fahl (طبقة فحل), is a village and the site of ancient ruins in northwestern Jordan.

Pella is located in the Jordan valley some 78 miles 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 honour 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 Decapolis were twelve (despite the name) cities in Palestine, Jordan and southern Syria which were centres of Greco-Roman culture. 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 1st century AD who were fleeing the Great Jewish Revolt. It is half an hour's drive from Irbid in northern Jordan.

The city proper was destroyed by earthquake in 749. A small village remains in the area. Only small portions of the ruins have been excavated.

The University of Sydney and the Jordanian Department of Antiquities have been conducting excavations at Pella since 1979. In recent years the focus has been on the site's Bronze Age and Iron Age temples and administrative buildings which were first exposed in 1994. Further archaeological work by the University is planned for early 2009 (see the external link below).

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Excavations by a team of Australian archaeologists have revealed much in the decade they have been working here, but still more remains hidden. Besides the excavated ruins from the Greco-Roman period, including an Odeon (theater) built in a curve of the hillside, Pella offers visitors the opportunity to see several artifacts of a Chalcolithic settlement from the 4th millennium BC, the remains of Bronze and Iron Ages walled cities, Byzantine churches and houses, an Early Islamic residential quarter, and a small medieval mosque.

The first literary reference to the city is from the 19th century BC when it is mentioned in Egyptian texts as Pihilum, or Pehel. It was a flourishing trade center, with links with Syria and Cyprus as well as Egypt. On the division of Alexander's Empire, its name was changed to Pella - either in honor of Alexander's birthplace, or as a Hellenisation of Pihilum, or both. It changed hands between the Ptolemies and Seleucids, and was sacked by the Hasmonean Alexander Jannaeus.

After Pompey's conquest in 63 BC its prosperity increased further as one of the cities of the Roman Decapolis, and the Roman city more or less eliminated the Hellenistic city. The Byzantine era saw a revitalization of Pella, as trade routes strengthened and local industries developed. Under them there was yet more building, in particular of churches - on the hillside overlooking the valley stands one such church, while another is near the river at the foot of the ancient tell.

After the 7th century Arab conquest, Pella continued as an Umayyad city for just over 100 years, and some superb pottery remains have been found here, made in the Jerash kilns. But like so many places in Jordan, the city was destroyed by the terrible earthquake of 747 AD. The site continued to be occupied during the Abbasid and Mamluk periods, but it was now a much smaller and more rural community. There was still a mud-brick village on the tell until 1970, but it was bombed in an Israeli strike across the border.

Photos Gallery - Pella


Pella Ruins	Mosaic Pella

Pella	Pella Map