A couple of easy buses from Irbid and now I’m in Madaba, just a bit southwest from Amman. Madaba is a fairly quiet town and has the largest population of Christians in Jordan. That’s not to say the Muslims don’t have a presence though. Every morning the Imam’s call to prayer can be heard everywhere as in most towns, but here it’s immediately followed by the ringing of the church bells.

Most of the sites and cities throughout the region, including all the Roman cities I’ve visited so far, were either destroyed or badly damaged in a monumental earthquake in 747 AD and Madaba was no exception. After the quake, the town was pretty much abandoned for about 1100 years. In the late 19th century people started coming back to rebuild and suddenly all these Byzantine era mosaics started to be unearthed. Imagine digging a foundation for your new house or to rebuild a church where there used to be one 1100 years ago and finding these treasures. And that’s why you come to Madaba. The mosaics here are just fantastic. (below: These were found under a house. left is Ariadne dancing next to a satyr)

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The most historically significant mosaic was found under St George’s church, a 6th century map of every biblical site from Egypt to Palestine. Unfortunately, a lot of it was lost to time, but what does still exist is not only beautiful, but still being studied to this day. It’s oriented a little different, east is at the top, west at the bottom, south to the right, and north to the left. It’s just awesome!

At the Church of the Apostles the attendant lets me wander off the designated path amongst the mosaics while he sprays them with a water bottle allowing the colors to really pop out. It’s amazing what a small amount of water can do! The big centerpiece is Thalassa, the Greek goddess of the sea.

There are two other locations in town called simply archeological site I and II. They encompass a couple of Byzantine churches which were built on top of Greek churches, some Islamic mosaics built on top of those, some mosaics taken from other sites around Jordan, and part of the original Roman road that traversed the city. There are so many mosaics here, so much history piled on top of history piled on top of even more history that it’s really overwhelming! For more Madaba mosaics, go here

My big day trip from Madaba took me to a couple of very significant religious sites. First, Mt Nebo, where Moses himself first gazed upon the promised land and then died. The view is spectacular! You can see the whole Jordan Valley, the Dead Sea, and supposedly you can see all the way to Jerusalem on a clear day, but not today. There have been churches on this mountain and monks living here for centuries. In addition to the view, there’s a Moses memorial church which was built on the foundations of an earlier 4th century church with a huge mosaic floor and scattered Byzantine ruins.

After Mt Nebo, it was down into the Jordan Valley to what archeologists assure us is the very spot where John the Baptists spring was and where he preached, meaning this is the place where Jesus himself was baptized. You certainly don’t need to be a Christian or even religious to appreciate the significance of this place.

The Jordan river has moved about a quarter of a mile west from where it was in biblical times, so I had to walk a bit to see the actual river, which also happens to be the border with the Palestinian territories in Israel. Consequently, this is the only place along the river that you’re allowed to approach due to sensitive border issues, and even then we’re only allowed as a group with a guide. On the Palestinian side several pilgrims were jumping in for a soak in the filthy holy river. I opted to only take my shoes off and refresh a bit. After seeing the site and the Greek orthodox church built nearby, no visit to such an overwhelmingly holy place would be complete without being forcefully led into the gift shop, where you can buy plastic bottles of holy water as souvenirs.

On the way back to Madaba I made a quick stop to the shore of the Dead Sea. The water is a really beautiful blue, but the coastline isn’t as pretty as I thought it would be, at least not the part I saw. I also didn’t feel the need to swim as it was a super hot day, the water is really warm, and they only allow swimming at expensive designated beaches. But now I can say I’ve been to the lowest place on earth, 1378ft below sea level.

See more from Mt Nebo, Bethany, and the Dead Sea here

My final day I had some extra time and so decided to visit another archeological site that I hadn’t originally planned on, but boy am I glad I did because it was fantastic! Umm ar Rasas is only about 20 miles east of Madaba. It was originally a Roman military outpost meant to defend the outer reaches of the empire, later it became a city of it’s own and passed through Byzantine and later, Muslim hands. There are several old churches with mosaic floors amongst the ruins, the best of which is St Stephens which gets it’s own tent structure built over it for protection, but all of them are fascinating.

The mosaics at the other churches scattered around the site are equally beautiful. It’s a little sad to see them just sitting exposed to the elements out in the desert, though, and something tells me I’m glad I get to see them now before they either disappear or it’s not allowed.

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Finally, about a mile up the road from Umm ar Rasas is this really interesting tower most likely used by an early Christian hermit known as a stylite. There are no stairs inside or out so I don’t know how he got up there, but he would have lived alone at the top of that thing exposed to the elements for decades. Nothing is known about this particular tower, but the earliest known stylite, Simeon in Syria in the 5th century, lived atop his tower for 37 years. Crazy! Right next to it are the remains of an early monastery.

All the pics from Umm-ar-Rasas are over here

This has been a fantastic stop! The mosaics are so beautiful and the amount of them is overwhelming. I took so many pictures and deciding which ones to share was really difficult. For the rest, you’ll just have to wait until I get back home. Also, the history of the area is astounding. Anyway, don’t go too far because the next stop is going to be a quick one.