Riccardo Quaranta

Italy - 18-Aug-23 -

Pella is the third Decapolis city TWHS I have visited in northern Jordan after Abila and Gadara in August 2023 and, in terms of quality, it's somewhere between the two. The site is not as well managed as Gadara, but it is not left completely on its own as Abila. 

The visitor centre is just off the main road (easy to find on Google maps), on a cliff that overlooks the entire archaeological site, which in fact is not very big. However, the visitor centre is not much more than a ticket booth and what seems to be meant as a small museum that is not ready yet.

From the visitor centre a clear path leads along the hill down to the valley where the main ruins are located. Unfortunately, not much is left. It's possible to see two sets of columns that were temples turned into basilicas, the remains of a theatre and the remains of a few other buildings and columns.

Overall, it took less than 40 minutes to see everything, including the walk down to the ruins and back up to the visitor centre. My advice is not to go on a very hot day as its location, below sea level and not too far from the Dead Sea, makes the area extremely hot and unpleasant.

As I stated in my reviews of the other two Decapolis city TWHS of northern Jordan, I don't think that Pella has the potential to become a WHS on its own while it could certainly be a component of a serial site comprising all the Decapolis cities together. 

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