The Holy Lands: Madaba, Mount Nebo and Bethany-beyond-the-Jordan

The land around the Jordan River Valley and the Dead Sea plain is revered by Muslims, Christians and Jews as blessed. The Bible calls it “the Garden of the Lord” (Genesis 13:10). Our own visit to the Holy Lands brought us to Madaba, Mount Nebo, and Bethany-beyond-the-Jordan.

Madaba

Best known for its spectacular Byzantine and Umayyad mosaics, Madaba is home to the famous 6^th century Mosaic Map of Jerusalem and the Holy Land. With two million pieces of vividly colored local stone, it depicts hills and valleys, villages and towns as far as the Nile Delta. The Madaba Mosaic Map covers the floor of the Greek Orthodox Church of St. George. The church was built in 1896 AD, over the remains of a much earlier 6^th century Byzantine church. 

The mosaic represents the biblical land from Egypt to Lebanon, including Sinai, Israel, Palestine and Transjordan. The Madaba Mosaic Map is deemed by scholars to be one of the best topographical representations of the Biblical Lands before modern cartography. As a source of biblical topography the map is fully comparable with the well-known treatise on the biblical places written in Greek around 395 AD by the historian Eusebius of Caesarea and translated into Latin by Jerome around 490 AD.

The original mosaic would have covered about 94 square meters, but only about 25 square meters are still preserved. A total of 156 biblical memoirs are depicted in the preserved portion of the map. 

After visiting the Madaba Mosaic Map, stroll around the city center. There are some ruins at the Archeological Museum and many shops sell handmade mosaics. 

Mount Nebo

Our next stop after Madaba was Mount Nebo. According to ancient tradition, this is the mountain from which Moses saw the Promised Land before he died.

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