Mount Nebo and Madaba

     Our first stop, just about 20 minutes over the border, was at Mt Nebo. This is where Moses was taken to look over the Promised Land and realize that he would never get to set foot in it. Here is this man who led his people and mourned over their wickedness for years all the while trying to reach this land of milk and honey. He was so close! As we were standing on the mountain, I was trying to imagine what he would have felt at that time. Then we read about his death/translation and it hit me. He could have cared less that he didn't go there! He was going somewhere much better. Unfortunately, it was very overcast when we went and so we couldn't see into Israel. The view was still pretty though!

Somewhere in the distance I'm told you can see the Promised Land

A memorial for when Moses made the bronze serpent that would heal the people. 

Maps have become so vital to understanding the scriptures for me. This gives you a good feel for the general direction of everything. 

     Soon, we were back on the bus and headed to Madaba. This town is famous for their mosaics. They even have a whole school to learn how to make mosaics. This may sound weird but once we got to the Greek Orthodox Church there it made a little more sense. The walls were covered in mosaics. They were amazing! You would not believe the detail that they included. I can't imagine how long some of these took to make. 

    

     Here is the painting of the Blue Handed Virgin. If you don't know what that is, it's ok. I didn't either until about 2 minutes ago. I just took the picture because my guide told me to. Apparently, this painting had been in the church for a long time and one day, after services, someone realized that a 3rd (then silver) hand had been added to the painting. No one knows how it happened and you can take it to mean whatever you want. The picture isn't great because it was in a dark room behind glass and we can't use flashes. 

The front of the inside of the church. Can you see all the mosaics covering the walls?

     Ok, now the cool part! This map is a mosaic on the floor of the church. It is the one of the oldest maps and the most influential to historians trying to reconstruct the geography of the Near East. You can see right in the center is Jerusalem. This is one way we know that it was set up like a Roman town. It has a Cardo running through the middle with pillars on either side. You can also see on the left side of the city, they have the column from which all distances were measured. This is one reason that Damascus is still called the Gate of the Column to this day. The Dead Sea is right above it. You can see the boats on the water. This lets us know that the map is oriented with East at the top (instead of North like we're used to.) Anciently, this is always how things are oriented. It's important to keep this in mind when reading about directions in the bible. 

     This was our first taste of Jordanian food. It was...ok. Let's just say they have awesome rice!! We weren't allowed to eat any fresh fruits or vegetables so that was a serious bummer! We could eat anything we peeled so I ate a lot of mandarins and oranges. They were amazing! They also had this dessert stuff everywhere that was like vanilla cake soaked in coconut syrup. It was so good. I think I had one at every meal. I miss those.