First we visited church mosaics in the town of Madaba. Madaba was a major Christian town in Byzantine times and built churches with amazing mosaic floors. As years passed, the town was abandoned and the churches fell into ruin. About 115 years ago, a Christian Arab moved back to the area and began to discover these mosaic floors as the started to build homes and businesses.
One is especially famous, as it contained a mosaic map of Christian sites of the 6th century, including a map of Byzantine Jerusalem. We got there before the tour busses and I got lots of pictures.
In the afternoon, we went to another amazing place: Machaerus. It is a fortress perched on a hill in the wilderness east of the Dead Sea, an amazing in and of itself. But the real historic importance of the site is that this is where John the Baptist was imprisoned and eventually killed. It’s amazing to walk literally in John’s last steps.
Lastly, a little local color, including a couple of shots for my wife.
Had a good lunch here.
