Gerasa

Gerasa was one of the ten Greco-Roman cities of the Decapolis, situated in the highlands east of the Jordan in northern Gilead. Though the city itself sat well inland, "the region of the Gerasenes" — the wider Decapolis territory bordering the Sea of Galilee — is where Jesus encountered the demon-possessed man who lived among the tombs. The demons identified themselves as "Legion, for we are many" and begged Jesus to send them into a nearby herd of two thousand pigs, which immediately rushed down the steep bank into the sea (Mark 5:1-20, Luke 8:26-39, also Matthew 8:28-34 which names "the country of the Gadarenes"). The healed man wanted to follow Jesus, but Jesus told him to "go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you" — making him the first cross-cultural witness to a Gentile region. The ruins at modern Jerash in Jordan preserve one of the best-preserved Roman provincial cities anywhere in the world.