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Irbid
Irbid (Arabic: إِربِد), known in ancient times as Arabella or Arbela (Άρβηλα in Ancient Greek), is the capital and largest city of Irbid Governorate. It has the second-largest metropolitan population in Jordan after Amman, with a population of around 2,003,800. As a city, Irbid is Jordan's third-largest, after Amman and Zarqa.
Irbid is located about 70 kilometres (43 mi) north of Amman on the northern ridge of the Gilead, equidistant from Pella, Beit Ras (Capitolias), and Um Qais, and approximately 20 kilometres (12 mi) south of the Syrian border.
Irbid was built on successive Early Bronze Age settlements and was possibly the biblical Beth Arbel and the Arbila of the Decapolis, a Hellenistic league of the 1st–2nd century BCE. The population of Irbid swelled in the late 19th century, and prior to 1948 it served as a significant centre of transit trade.
The greater Irbid Municipality was established in 1881 in the Ottoman era. It is the oldest municipality in Jordan.
The city is a major ground transportation hub between Amman, Syria to the north, and Mafraq to the east. The Irbid region is also home to several colleges and universities.
The place-name Ἄρβηλα for present-day Irbid is first documented on civic bronze coins of the Decapolis struck in the late first century BCE and the early first century CE, with the same Greek form recorded in 1 Maccabees 9 2 and in Josephus, Antiquities 12 11 1. The variant ʾrbl appears in Nabataean Aramaic inscriptions and in Safaitic Old Arabic graffiti dating from roughly the first century BCE to the third century CE, and Eusebius lists a village called Arbela across the Jordan near Pella in his fourth-century Onomasticon. Excavations on Tell Irbid show continuous occupation from at least the Early Bronze Age around 3200 BCE, placing the settlement more than two millennia before these Hellenistic attestations and more than three millennia before the earliest archaeological evidence for a permanent Jewish community in the northern Transjordan, which appears with the third or fourth century CE synagogue at Gerasa.
Artifacts and graves in the area show that Irbid was inhabited in the Bronze Age. Pieces of pottery and wall stones found at Tell Irbid were estimated to be made in the year 3200 B.C. A city wall dated to around 1300–1200 BC.
In the Hellenistic period, Irbid—then known as Arabella—was a major trade center. Before the advent of Islam, Arabella was famous for producing some of the best wines in the ancient world. The area in the region had extremely fertile soil and moderate climate, allowing the growing of high quality grapes.
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Irbid
Irbid (Arabic: إِربِد), known in ancient times as Arabella or Arbela (Άρβηλα in Ancient Greek), is the capital and largest city of Irbid Governorate. It has the second-largest metropolitan population in Jordan after Amman, with a population of around 2,003,800. As a city, Irbid is Jordan's third-largest, after Amman and Zarqa.
Irbid is located about 70 kilometres (43 mi) north of Amman on the northern ridge of the Gilead, equidistant from Pella, Beit Ras (Capitolias), and Um Qais, and approximately 20 kilometres (12 mi) south of the Syrian border.
Irbid was built on successive Early Bronze Age settlements and was possibly the biblical Beth Arbel and the Arbila of the Decapolis, a Hellenistic league of the 1st–2nd century BCE. The population of Irbid swelled in the late 19th century, and prior to 1948 it served as a significant centre of transit trade.
The greater Irbid Municipality was established in 1881 in the Ottoman era. It is the oldest municipality in Jordan.
The city is a major ground transportation hub between Amman, Syria to the north, and Mafraq to the east. The Irbid region is also home to several colleges and universities.
The place-name Ἄρβηλα for present-day Irbid is first documented on civic bronze coins of the Decapolis struck in the late first century BCE and the early first century CE, with the same Greek form recorded in 1 Maccabees 9 2 and in Josephus, Antiquities 12 11 1. The variant ʾrbl appears in Nabataean Aramaic inscriptions and in Safaitic Old Arabic graffiti dating from roughly the first century BCE to the third century CE, and Eusebius lists a village called Arbela across the Jordan near Pella in his fourth-century Onomasticon. Excavations on Tell Irbid show continuous occupation from at least the Early Bronze Age around 3200 BCE, placing the settlement more than two millennia before these Hellenistic attestations and more than three millennia before the earliest archaeological evidence for a permanent Jewish community in the northern Transjordan, which appears with the third or fourth century CE synagogue at Gerasa.
Artifacts and graves in the area show that Irbid was inhabited in the Bronze Age. Pieces of pottery and wall stones found at Tell Irbid were estimated to be made in the year 3200 B.C. A city wall dated to around 1300–1200 BC.
In the Hellenistic period, Irbid—then known as Arabella—was a major trade center. Before the advent of Islam, Arabella was famous for producing some of the best wines in the ancient world. The area in the region had extremely fertile soil and moderate climate, allowing the growing of high quality grapes.