Pella, Jordan: the oldest continuously occupied city in the world

I first arrived serendipitously in Pella at the end of a very long day in 2002. Signage was poor and as I turned south from the Jordan Valley and drove up through the modern little village of Tabaqat Fahil, I didn’t know exactly where the ruins were. The road wound through parched hills that the setting sun had turned the colour of amber wine. I pulled into the beautiful, spacious Pella Resthouse, designed by prominent architect Ammar Khammash, to ask directions. The proprietor took me out onto a patio draped with flowered vines and adorned with ancient, carved stone pediments and column corinths. The restaurant was on a promontory overlooking a deep basin filled with marble columns and floors of Byzantine basilicas. The sun glinted on a pool where a permanent spring issued from the ground and fed a small stream, flowing now even in the heat of August. Beyond it were holes of archaeological digs, prompting the proprietor to proudly inform me that Pella was the oldest city in the world. To the left was another collection of columns, the remains of a 5th Century Byzantine church.
Although not much to look at compared, say, to the well-preserved and restored Roman city of Jerash a little to the southeast, Pella is a must for history buffs, and there is no more scenic place in Jordan. It is one of the oldest, continuously-occupied sites in the world, with Palaeolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Bronze Age, and Iron Age layers under the ancient city structures. The earliest written record of it so far discovered is in Egyptian texts from 4,000 years ago; Pella’s former oak forests supplied timber for their chariots. Roman palaces and temples built on former Hellenistic ruins had been destroyed by the Hebrew king Alexander Jannaeus in 82 BCE, rebuilt by the Romans, and rebuilt again by the Byzantine Christians. There is a Caananite temple, referred to as the Pella Migdol Temple, an Iron Age palace, and three Byzantine basilicas. A Mamluk mosque commemorates where a Companion of Mohammad fell in the Battle of Fahl in 635 AD. Archaeological work continues; the site has been rich in antiquities that fill a new, small museum overlooking the site. It is on the UNESCO World Heritage Site tentative list.
The proprietor brought tea, and I was about to order supper when I saw a shepherd riding a donkey, leading his sheep through the ruins. I said, “Wait a minute—no, wait an hour.” I clambered down from the patio, ducked through a fence and caught up with the shepherd as he reached the top of a high, steep hill, Tell Husn, that overlooks Pella to the north, and also gave expansive views west out over the Jordan Valley, east up a dry wadi, and south over rolling hills. The shepherd greeted me standing atop the ruins of a Byzantine fortress under which archaeologists have found Bronze Age tombs. We shared a pleasant conversation in the sunset, after which I returned to the resthouse for one of the best meals I ever ate as the crescent moon rose over the Jordan Valley.
Search Picasa for “Pella 5th Century Byzantine Church” to see a photo, and others from Jordan.