Umm Qais, Jordan
The Umm Qais Museum is a small archaeological museum housed in Beit Rousan, one of the finest houses of the Ottoman village at Umm Qais: a traditional Arab house of the 1860s built of black basalt, with reception rooms and chambers around a central courtyard, once the residence of an Ottoman governor. The house was restored by Jordan's Department of Antiquities together with the German Protestant Institute of Archaeology under the architect Ammar Khammash, and opened as a museum in 1990. It displays what excavations have brought out of ancient Gadara from the Hellenistic to the Islamic periods: marble and limestone statues of the old city's deities, marble masks, Egyptian statues in limestone and basalt, mosaic panels from the city's Byzantine churches, coins, pottery and finds from the tombs. The basalt courtyard and Ottoman arcades complete the visit, since the house itself is a monument that introduces the architecture of 19th-century Jordanian villages. Prince Charles, then heir to the British throne, visited in November 2021.
See the museum at the start of your visit to Umm Qais to make sense of what you will see among the ruins; half an hour is enough, then continue to the West Theatre and the viewpoint. The courtyard is partly shaded and a comfortable place to rest with children in the midday heat. The museum lies inside the archaeological site and is entered with the site ticket (3 JOD, free with the Jordan Pass according to Wikivoyage 2026).
Hours and prices change — check before you go. Source: en.wikipedia.org
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