Madaba

South of the city of Amman is the city of Madaba.  To get there you can take the 5,000 year old King’s Highway which is one of the most well trodden routes in the Holy Land and passes through a string of ancient sites. 

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Madaba’s chief attraction is in the contemporary Greek Orthodox church of St. George.  It has a wonderfully vivid 6th century Byzantine mosaic map showing Jerusalem and other holy sites.  

Tour guides are not permitted to explain the map in the church so our guide explained it to us in a nearby tourist store which contained a replica of the actual map.  I’ve attached a video of his explanation followed by video of the actual map in the church.