Known as the Jordanian city of Mosaics, Madaba is the largest city in the Madaba governorate. Today the area is also famous for its large propensity of Christian pilgrimage sites, including several Byzantine churches such as the Greek Orthodox Basilica of Saint George with its much celebrated mosaic of the map, or the Church of Prophet Elijah with its crypt.
If you stop of in the charmingly quaint little town of Madaba to see one thing only, make it the mosaics in the Greek Orthodox Basilica of Saint George. Undoubtedly the most famous piece of mosaic in the country, the map was crafted in AD 560 and depicts all the major biblical sites of the Middle East, and was a historical breakthrough as the oldest map of Palestine and Jerusalem in existence.
Visitors to Madaba can watch local artisans at work at handicraft workshops where mosaics, sand bottle, and carpets are made by hand. Also well worth a visit in the city, is the Hippolytus Mansion, the Church of the Virgin Mary the Church of the Holy Martyrs (Al-Khadir), the Burnt Palace and the Church of the Sunna’ family.
Madaba is located very close to Amman and can easily be visited as a day trip from the capital in conjunction with a trip to Mount Nebo, and Musa (Moses) valley.
