Thursday, July 10, 2008

Spiritual Jordan

Map in St George Church


You tend to forget that Jordan is a place for many pilgrims. You can visit many places which were named in the Bible. So very close to Israel, but if we want to come home by car we are not allowed to have a stamp of Israel in our passport. So we visited Mount Nebu, the place where Moses just before his death saw the promised land. We also saw the river Jordan where Jesus was baptized. It is a very dirty and small river these days, but in the past it was a big river. The other side was Israel, with some practise you would be able to jump over the Jordan river. In Madaba many churches are decorated with mosaics. The most famous one is the St George church (again, we already met him in Ethiopia). It has a map for the pilgrims on the floor with all the biblical sites. Especially in the past very useful because maps were rare. These days Madaba is still the centre for mosaic, you see them everywhere and they even have a special school for making mosaics.
View from Mt Nebu

No comments: