Sunday, July 3, 2011

Excursion

Yesterday we went to Madaba, Mt. Nebo, the baptism site of Jesus and the dead sea

It was a full day but we were all grateful for a trip out of the city. It was really hot!! I think I drank like 3 liters of water "Ma'ii" in Arabic.

Our first stop was Madaba. It is a town about 45 minutes outside of Amman with a long history. We spent some time walking around and also watching some of the local artisans working on the town's specialty: "mo-sa-ic"- the artists in the shop were arranging a large peacock design when we visited and I was amazed at the meticulous process of creating the mosaic because each tiny piece of tile was added by hand!!!

Later we visited a church called St. George's where we saw the oldest known map of Mesopotamia. This huge map is actually a giant mosaic that covers most of the church floor and it documents settlements from the Sinai desert all the way to Madaba.

After a quick falafel and water break we hopped back in the bus and headed to Mt. Nebo. Supposedly this was the spot where Moses was burried. From the top of the mountain you can see Jerico and the Dead Sea. It is a pretty amazing because you could literally see for miles in all directions.

Then we headed to the site where John baptised Jesus in the River Jordan. It was pretty cool to think that Jesus actually walked where we were walking- I think the visit was meaningful for our whole group regardless of religion because it was like experiencing a piece of living history.

Our last stop for the day was the Dead Sea. After all that walking we were very happy to get to swin a little. We got covered in mud and had a blast floating in the sea.

ma'selema!!

1 comment:

  1. That is very cool about that map of Mesopotamia. I've heard about that map before, its very famous. Very cool.

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