Jordan: Madaba & Mount Nebo

Madaba is an ancient town in Jordan, southwest of the capital Amman. It’s known for its 6th-century mosaic map of the Holy Land in the Greek Orthodox Church of St. George. The Madaba Archaeological Park preserves the mosaic-rich Church of the Virgin Mary and artifacts from the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Islamic eras. Northwest, the biblical hill of Mount Nebo overlooks the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea.

🙂 Amazing to gaze over the Promised Land. Incredible mosaics. Roman coin and cross.

🙁 50JD for the coin and cross!

Moses’s Journey:

Mount Nebo is an elevated ridge located in Jordan, approximately 700 metres above sea level. Part of the Abarim mountain range, Mount Nebo is mentioned in the Bible as the place where Moses was granted a view of the Promised Land before his death.

We then headed to Madaba via the obligatory mosaic shop – roll eyes! I bought a fridge magnet – lol – don’t think they were impressed!

The Madaba Map depicts part of the Middle East and contains the oldest surviving original cartographic depiction of the Holy Land and especially Jerusalem.

We then stopped off for lunch and the Jordanian quintessential dish of Bedouins, featuring lightly spiced lamb, fluffy rice, and a tangy jameed-based yogurt sauce, all piled on top of torn flatbread. I don’t really like boiled meat but it was OK. We were horrified to find 20% alcohol beer – so we had to buy one from the bottle store (everywhere is dry) – it was DISGUSTING – like vodka treacle. Yuck. We bought a bottle of red Jordanian wine and 4 Coronas for the dry hotels.

We headed in the direction of Petra and stopped at the ‘smallest hotel in the world’! The King of Jordan himself has stopped off here. The old boy invited us in and managed to talk paul into buying a Roman coin and a cross for 50JD! That was after he’d said the coin was 20JD!! he obviously felt so bad for ripping us off that he gave us a little pill box too! Hilarious!

Next stop was Shoback Castle or or Qal’at ash-Shawbak in Arabic, is a castle built by the Crusaders and expanded by the Mamluks, on the eastern side of the Arabah Valley, perched on the side of a rocky, conical mountain, looking out over fruit orchards below.

In Petra we stopped off at Moses’s Spring. The site is located near the King’s Way Hotel, at the main junction into Wadi Musa from the north.  According to legend Moses passed through these lands from Egypt to Canaan. His people were thirsty so Moses struck the ground with his staff five times and a cold spring sprung from the ground. For centuries Moses Springs served local people, providing them with fresh cold water. The spring still flows but is now housed within a simple modern three-domed building occasionally visited by local pilgrims.

Our hotel for the night was the wonderful Old Village Resort. This literally was the old village and the chap who took our bags to our room told us that his Father had been born there. We relaxed, swam and I had a massage. There was a buffet dinner – the highlight being the assorted Jordanian deserts – divine! Our room had a great view across the valley.

We had an early night – and it was raining in the desert!!

Go to: Jordan

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