The Cardo in Ninety Minutes

You have half a morning in Jerash and a bus waiting. Fine. We start at Hadrian's Arch, walk the 800 metres of the Cardo Maximus, and stop at the four places that actually explain the city: the oval forum with its 56 Ionic columns, the ruts the chariot wheels cut into the limestone, the manhole covers over a drain that still carries rainwater after 1,900 years, and the Nymphaeum where the pink stone still shows where the marble facing was prised off. Ninety minutes, one guide, no minibus, no shopping stop. Be clear about what this is not. You will not see the North Theatre, the fifteen Byzantine churches, or the mosaic floors up the hill, and we will not pretend otherwise — if you have three hours, book the longer walk instead. The arch-to-plaza stretch also has no shade whatsoever, none, and the paving turns genuinely slippery after winter rain because two thousand years of feet have polished it. Between June and September we run this at 08:00 or after 16:00 only, and we do not negotiate on that.