A Trip to Jordan: Madaba, Mt. Nebo, Dead Sea, Bethabara (Bethany)

 Our tour group had a slow day plan for today, so we took a different flight and added a few places to see. I really love traveling with the Cannons and their belief that more is, well, more. We're here. Why not spent as much time as possible seeing and doing?

I love this sign. Can you imagine an airport in the US directing passengers to the Prayer Area?  It was actually in use when we got there.

Jordan instantly struck me as cleaner than Egypt.

 There were more cars, fewer donkeys, motorcycles, and no horse-drawn carriages.

Storekeepers came out to great us and welcome us to their country.

They were clearly delighted to see tourists,  although this didn't seem to be a tourist town.

Our first stop was very freshly squeezed pomegranate juice.

A spartan snack store.

We followed our guide through Madaba, city of mosaics.

 I love this great local graffiti. We'd seen various signs and graffiti pleading for peace everywhere we've been.  Interesting that it's written in English.

I'm not sure if Christmas is coming or going here.

The church at Madaba is St. George Greek Orthodox.

This is our excellent guide for the day. I wish I had written down his name.

The church is famous for its ancient mosaic map, and this church it is in is sometimes called "The Church of the Map". The map was uncovered in 1894 (or 1896 said another source) and dates back to the 560 AD. It contains 157 captions of significant biblical sites from Lebanon to Egypt.

The map has 2 million pieces of colored stone (I wonder who did the counting), and is the oldest discovered map of  Jerusalem. I has become an important source of scholarly knowledge about Jerusalem after the 70 AD destruction and rebuilding.

The map was uncovered during the construction of this church, which was completed in 1898.

Madaba is an ancient city, mentioned in Numbers 21:30 and Joshua 13:9.

The city is know for the large number of ancient mosaics. 

As modern civilizations began to recycle old bricks to make new houses, priests alerted them to the need to take care of the ancient mosaics being uncovered. 

As a result, newly discovered mosaics were preserved rather than destroyed

making this city an extensive treasure-trove of Byzantine Era mosaic treasures.

This rather modest church had dozens of hanging mosaics, some of which are quite lovely.

 This church is named after St. George, the soldier, martyr, and dragon slayer. 

Our next stop was Mt. Nebo. This interesting carving commemorates the 2000 visit by Pope John Paul II. It represents a book of scripture, the book of love.

This area was one of my favorites. There's really nothing amazing about it, but I could just picture the frustration of Moses as he viewed the Promised Land, wanting to bring the Israelites here, but not being able to do so. I found it so moving to see what Moses saw, knowing he was so close, but would never enter.

This is the stone door of the Byzantine monastery.

A Byzantine church and monastery was discovered in 1933. It was originally built in the 4th century. The building that houses the mosaic floors of that church is currently closed for renovation, but there were a couple of floors under tents we were allowed to view. 

There was a fairly good sized herd of sheep at Mt. Nebo.  They seem to be overdue for a haircut.

This sculpture, representing Moses' bronze serpent, was created by Italian artist Giovanni Fantoni.

The view from the top was incredibly smoggy. 

Our group of intrepid co-travelers.

According to tradition, Moses is buried on Mt. Sinai.

There is a second monument there, a place people can tie white cloth prayers to.

As we headed onward, we passed a field of camels, calmly grazing like we would see cattle in the states. Surreal!

A herd of sheep, cleverly blending in with the rocks.

More security, with a handy yellow portable tire-popper, ready for action.

We made a slight detour to see the Dead Sea.

It was an appropriately trash-filled place, with shanty-ish tents and a camel in case there was no room for you in the car.

No swimming for us today.

We are headed to Bethany beyond Jordan. Along the way we spotted this animal, which I believe we decided was a coypu, also known as a river rat. He was quite large, and had a muskrat-y appearance.

We are again at the Jordan river.

This is the likely site of Jesus' baptism. It is identified on the mosaic map we saw back in Madaba early this day as Bethabara, or Bethany. If this is the correct site of Christ's baptism, it is also the spot Elijah was taken to heaven by chariot.

This place was uncovered in the 1990s during a mine clearing operation.

This structure is described in the sign in the next picture.

One of the more interesting mosaic murals here.

And a more traditional mural.

A beautiful modern Greek Orthodox church built next to the Jordan River.

Sadly, we were not able to go inside.

There were quite a number of churches in this area.

 On the other side are Palestine territories.

A closer look revealed armed soldiers. I guess we wouldn't be swimming across the Jordan River today.

We visited a place where intricate mosaics were being made

and learned a little about the tedious process.

Watching the work, I marveled all over again as I thought about the endless mosaic floors we'd seen everywhere.

They had many pieces for sale, but as tempting as it was, I just couldn't bring myself to spend more money. I'm just spent out.

We had one of the very best meals of our journey in a restaurant the Cannons found. 

I've learned people here eat enormous amounts of appetizers, and the main dish is almost secondary. SO. GOOD. That green drink is mint lemonade.

Our last motel of the trip-an fabulous hotel, except that our air conditioner didn't work, and neither did any of our outlets. ARGH!