Amman to Madaba and Umm ar-Rasas: Private day trip

Dating back to the Bronze Age, Madaba is mentioned in the Bible as a Moabite border city. From the 2nd through 7th centuries, it was an important stop on the King’s Highway trade route but was destroyed by an earthquake in 746 and abandoned. In 1880 a Christian community from Karak resettled the site, and uncovered numerous mosaics during their excavations of the city. The most famous of which is a 6th century map of the Holy Land on the floor of a Byzantine cathedral, which is now preserved within the confines of the Greek Orthodox Church of St. George. Comprised of millions of pieces of colored stone, it’s the earliest record of Byzantine Jerusalem. There hundreds of other mosaics scattered throughout the city, with some exceptional examples being found in the Church of the Virgin and the Apostles, and the several other Byzantine churches in Madaba’s extensive Archaeological Park and Museum.

Said to be the site of the Biblical town of Mephaat, Umm ar-Rasas was built as a Roman garrison town in the 4th century to defend the frontier of the Roman Empire. During the Byzantine era, and even into the Early Muslim period, 16 churches were built at Umm ar-Rasas, and it remained a pilgrimage site until Muslim officials began threatening pilgrims with imprisonment. While much of the site hasn’t been excavated, many of the churches exhibit some well-preserved mosaics. The most notable is the one in the Church of St Stephen, which is the largest Byzantine mosaic in Jordan. Perfectly preserved, it includes fishing scenes, a map of major cities in the region, and the only surviving icon in the city. The town’s two square towers were likely used by ascetic monks who would sit atop them in isolation, and are probably the last vestiges of this practice.