Madaba and Mt. Nebo

Yesterday I went to Madaba and Mount Nebo for the day. It was a great day trip; we left around 9:30 and got home around 5. We took a bus from Amman to Madaba. The 30 minute ride cost us each less than a dollar! In Madaba we visited a museum, multiple churches and then hired a taxi to take us to Mount Nebo. The weather was beautiful so it was a fantastic day. Here's some pictures. 

The Catholic Church in Madaba. However, they call it The Church of the Beheading of John the Baptist.
Our tour guide proudly stated, "It is the only one in the world named this!" 

The church had a multitude of mosaic replicas which we thought were pretty cool until we realized we would be seeing all the originals later in the day. 

A mosaic they discovered in the church just a month ago. 

This well, they told us, is more than 2000 years old. 

We climbed up to the bell tower and this was our view. Amazing.

The crew: Christian, Rory, Evelina, Helin, Stephanie, Liese, me. 

There were mosaics everywhere, yet all of them were impressive. At this one, the man sprayed a bit of water on it and the way it revealed the colors underneath was amazing. They are so incredibly beautiful!

The Apostle's Church.

The entire floor was covered with a mosaic. It's sheer size was impressive. 

I couldn't resist. Misspellings of English words on signs is often good for a laugh.

This is the Church of the Map or Church of Saint George. 

On the floor in the church is a mosaic map that is the oldest known map of the Holy Land.
If you want more info:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madaba_Map   

I've been interning at Siyaha, a USAID funded tourism development group in Jordan this semester. This was a project they helped fund.

Mount Nebo! If you don't know, Mount Nebo is famous as the site where Moses, right before his death,  looked out over the Promised Land for the first time.
More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Nebo

This was our taxi driver. I asked him to take a picture of our group, but he misunderstood and thought I wanted a picture of him...oh well. 

All the places you can see from this spot on Mount Nebo. It's a pretty impressive list: Hebron, Bethlehem, Jericho, the Dead Sea, Nablus, Ramallah and the Mount of Olives.