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GADARA

(Gk. Gadara)

A prominent Decapolis city from Pompey’s time (63 b.c.), modern Umm Qeis, whose history goes as far back as the Hellenistic period. Gadara was near the place where Jesus cast the demons out of a man (Mark 5:1-20; two men in Matt. 8:28-34). It is located on a plateau at the northeast border of Jordan, ca. 10 km. (6 mi.) SE of the south shore of the Sea of Galilee/Tiberias; on the north it borders the steep slopes of the Yarmuk (Hieromax) River, and on the west the steep slopes extending down to the Jordan Valley.

A recent site plan established that the Gadara ruins extend for 1600 m. (1 mi.) on either side of an east-west Decumanus Maximus, and also extend 450 m. (.27 mi.) on a north-south axis.

Various remains uncovered on the terrace between the upper and lower city include a square building (ca. 23.5 m. × 23.1 m. [77 × 75.8 ft.]) in the central part of the terrace (a rectangular colonnaded building is at the north end of the terrace) with an octagonal 6th-century structure, a church, built over a Roman period floor of limestone slabs; it had an apse on the southeast, and a mosaic floor of black, blue, yellow, red, and white stone tiles/tesserae. A large public bath (30 m. × 50 m.[98.5 × 164 ft.]) was uncovered 50 m. (164 ft.) W of the church, presumably Late Roman/Early Byzantine, which with its auxiliary rooms covered ca. 2300 sq. m. (2750 sq. yds.); after its initial destruction, it was used again on a slightly smaller scale until its demise in the early 7th century, when it was reused as living/industrial quarters.

The excavation of a series of vaulted rooms along the west edge of the terrace revealed that the vaults, facing west onto a street running south at right angles to the main east-west Decumanus Maximus, were used as shops. A 34 m. (112 ft.) section excavated along the east-west Decumanus Maximus revealed that this street was 12.55 m. (41 ft.) wide, with sidewalks 3 m. (10 ft.) wide; the street was renovated in the Byzantine period. Farther west along this Decumanus some parts of a hippodrome were exposed. Also on the west a large subterranean monumental mausoleum has been excavated. In the east section of the site two theaters have been uncovered: a theater on the south side of the Decumanus, near the east wall of the city, and the other theater facing west on the east side and south of the vaulted-shops street; in the latter theater was found a life-size marble statue. A large underground aqueduct has also been found, but its full extent has not been determined.

See Gerasenes.

Bibliography. B. DeVries, “The North Mausoleum at Um Qeis,” ADAJ 18 (1973): 77; W. H. Mare, “Gadara,” in The New International Dictionary of Biblical Archaeology, ed. E. M. Blaiklock and R. K. Harrison (Grand Rapids, 1983), 201; G. Schumacher, Northern ʾAjlun (London, 1890).

W. Harold Mare