Hola Spring! Have you noticed the greenery across Jordan yet? It’s beautiful!
We decided to hit the road and head to Madaba for a change.
With only 30km away from Amman, Madaba is well known for being the “City of Mosaics”, especially mosaics from the Byzantine and Umayyad periods featuring a large Byzantine-era mosaic map of the Holy Land.
So our first stop was Mount Nebo (with the help of Google maps of course). Here, Moses was granted a view of the Promised Land. The view from the summit provides a panorama of the Holy Land and, to the north, a more limited one of the valley of the River Jordan. The West Bank city of Jericho is usually visible from the summit, as is Jerusalem on a very clear day.
The entrance fee for Jordanians is 0.50 piasters and for foreigners is 2.00 JOD.
The Brazen Serpent Monument. Created by Italian artist Giovanni Fantoni, it imaginatively merges the life-saving bronze serpent set up by Moses into the desert and the cross upon which Jesus was crucified.
Plaque showing the distance from Mount Nebo to various locations
Once we finished, we headed to Downtown Madaba for a walk before lunch. It’s filled with lots of shops selling antiques and souvenirs. We literally walked around up until we found a hidden gem. THE cutest place called Kawon, a cultural bookstore with the coolest design. Here is a picture of Ghaith and myself outside his shop:
Ghaith was kind enough to tell us to head to Church of St John the Baptist, which was literally 3 minutes by foot from his shop. Upon getting there, make sure to ask to get to the top to see this beautiful scenery of Madaba (ps. I died 300 times while going to the top and coming back down; if you’re scared of heights embrace this picture as is and move on with your life):
Lastly, and after the dramatic climbing of St. John the Baptist Church, we got to Haret Jdoudna for some Arabic lunch. This restaurant is one of the oldest restaurants in Madaba and I suspect it’s the best one there!
Hope you enjoyed reading!
