After our stay in Israel was complete, we continued our journey to Jordan, a nation which held many amazing surprises for us. Just crossing the border was an adventure. We traveled by taxi to the Jordan River, which defines the border between Israel and Jordan, and walked through immigration and customs. Then we took a five-minute bus ride across the river into Jordan, and went through Jordanian immigration and customs. After we were through with that process, we took a five-minute cab ride to a pick-up spot where a pre-arranged driver was waiting to deliver us to our hotel two hours away in Madaba. All of this transportation complication is necessary because Israeli cars can’t drive into Jordan, and Jordanian cars can’t drive into Israel. You get to meet a lot of transportation professionals when you cross the border.
Madaba is a fascinating city. It is known as “the city of the map” because of a mosaic map that was discovered just over 100 years ago. At that time, a group of Christians felt uncomfortable living among their Muslim neighbors and received permission to move to Madaba, and ancient city that was then in ruins. They were not allowed to build new churches, but could restore the ruined ones. In rebuilding the fallen buildings, they discovered magnificent mosaic floors dating back to the Byzantine, and Crusader periods! Some of them are in fairly good condition and are well worth visiting. Probably the most important is the map of the Holy Land.
The map apparently directed pilgrims and crusaders toward Jerusalem. It includes all kinds of identifiable landmarks including the Jordan River, the main roads of Jerusalem, the Dead Sea, and many important buildings. The map locates the site of the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River on what is now the border between Israel and Jordan. You can visit the site on either side of the river. We visited the Jordanian side.
More about that in the next post.
Blessings,
Linda
