Today, I decided to visit Madaba and Mount Nebo that are easily accessible on a day trip from Amman.

Madaba

Madaba is famous for its Mosaics that have been found all over the city and surroundings.

I decided to go by myself so I took the minibus to Madaba with the locals and it went all well except I did not know when to exit and ended up at the out-of-town bus station and got to walk back downtown.

Well, not too long as a shared taxi picked me up after 5 minutes and took me to the right place for the visit :).

The most famous of these mosaics is the map of the holy land located inside the Saint George Church in Madaba. The book was raving about it, people I had met were raving about it… so I went and I got very disappointed. It is very damaged and only a small portion is left. Don’t get me wrong, it is a very fine mosaic with great representations of famous sites (Especially old Jerusalem with its walls and some of its most important sites) and offered a lot of information to historians and archaeologs when it was more complete. I think the buzz killed it for me!

There are also two archaeological site very close by that present great mosaics. I enjoyed these more than the map one actually.

Mount Nebo

After lunch, I went to Mount Nebo located close by that is supposed to be where Moses was showed a view of the promised land by God and were God buried him later on.

There are great views of the surrounding landscapes from the top of the Mount. The church of Moses has been well restored by the Franciscans with some great mosaics.

The only thing is that I could have done without the tourist herd and their loud Shepperd (I mean guide) as I was trying to get a feel for the place :(.

Philadelphia’s Amphitheatre

I finally decided I had seen enough mosaics for a day and got back to Amman. It was even hotter than the day before but it was already too late to be worth paying for access to a swimming pool so I resorted to find a nice place to relax and read some of my book.

As I had done before in Petra, I went to the old Roman amphitheatre as I knew it would offer enough shade. Also, you can seat high and have a good view of the surrounding area and the tourists visiting the place always offer enough animation to keep you entertained for hours :). The amphitheatre is nice but you might want to think before paying the entry fee if you only want to see it and go.

On the same topic of value, I would only visit Madaba and Mount Nebo if you have time after Petra, Jerash, Amman and the Dead Sea.