Jordan: Madaba and Mt Nebo

Madaba is a town to the east of the Dead Sea, perched atop the rift. It's most famous for its mosaic map, located in a Greek Orthodox Church of St George (seems a little multicultural, doesn't it?). The mosaic depicts the Middle East as it was in the sixth century and originally containing some two million pieces covering about 140m^2, I walked straight past it, remarking to myself, "why the fuck is that area roped off?" as I wandered toward the altar of the church.

Yes, I'm an idiot.

Why rope off an area to the side of the Church? It makes no sense!

In my scant defense, there are many mosaics depicting religious icons and warriors all over the Church walls and pillars that being at eye level, caught my attention initially.

Oooh! Pretty, but not the mosaics I'm looking for.

The map - which is indeed behind the roped off area - has been proven to be very accurate. Archaeologists have used it to locate previously undiscovered ruins in the Middle East, a fact that baffles me a little. How can towns, temples and monuments just pass out of memory in an area that has been continuously inhabited for thousands upon thousands of years?

The answer is apparently earthquakes and persecution, but this still puzzles me a bit.

Oh, that's why it was roped off, to stop idiots like me walking all over it while looking for it.

Mt Nebo is just to the west of Madaba, overlooking the rift that the Dead Sea is in. Apparently it affords views of the promised land; all I saw was haze. Moses, aged 120, presumably got to see it all (and then died before climbing down). On a clear day it's possible to see beyond the Dead Sea all the way to Jerusalem and Jericho on the West Bank.

Mt Nebo has more mosaics and a vantage point that shows dozens of switchbacks down into the rift, ordinarily the motorcyclist in me would be excited to see such a road, but given the state of their highways, this was most certainly another perilous trap.

It's hard not to get the impression that this is really just a tourist stop for people most interested in following in the footsteps of prophets...

What a wonderful view of... haze.