Madaba and Mount Nebo (V)

A herd of sheep grazing but I didn't
see anything green for them to eat.

This is how the Jordanians construct buildings.

  Shop in Madaba

The Greek Orthodox Basilia of Saint George in Madaba. The Map of Madaba Mosaic made in the 6th century is located in this church.  The mosaic was discovered in 1896. It is made up of millions of pieces of colored stones,  The map is famous because it is one of the oldest maps of Bible lands in the world.

Madaba is located 19 miles south-west of Amman.  The town of Madaba was a Moabite city and here are a few places it is mentioned in the Bible. Numbers 21:30, Joshua 13:9 , I Chronicles 19:7 and Isaiah 15:2

                                       

Part of the Map of Madaba Mosaic on the floor of the church

Map of Madaba Mosaaic showing Jerusalem in the 6th century.

Part of the Map of Madaba Mosaic showing the Jordan River

Another view of the Greek Orthodox church of Saint George in Madaba

Squeezing a Pomegranate to make Juice

The pomegranate juice has a religious  meaning that represents Christ's blood.

Sign showing many of the Jordanian Leaders

There are a lot of olive tree groves in  this area of Jordan.

In 2005 this sculpture was erected by the Catholic church in celebration of the Pope's visit to Mount Nebo. The Latin inscription at the base means "One God and Father of all, who is above all."

This is a memorial to Moses situated on the top of Mount Nebo.

Mosaic in the old diaconicon baptistery of the basilica on Mount Nebo depicting pastoral and hunting scenes. The                                   photo below shows a peacock which symbolizes eternity.                                 

The view Moses saw from the top of Mount Nebo when the Lord showed him the Promised Land. 
Moses was buried near Mount Nebo.

A sign showing the distances from Mount Nebo to other places.

I had an opportunity to learn about how to make a mosaic. I had to use tweezers to pick up a tiny piece of  metal.

 I dipped the tiny piece in glue.

I put the  piece of metal along the ink drawing.

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The design is drawn first and then the metal pieces are placed on the lines to make the outline before the background and objects are filled in with small pieces of colored glass.

A women who makes amazing mosaics.

This person working in the store made this beautiful peacock mosaic.

There are families living in these tents. 

Since we stayed in this hotel an extra night because we couldn't fly out of Tel Aviv, dinner wasn't included so I was able to get some milk  and we ate Weet-a-Bix cereal that we had brought from England.

We had to check out of our hotel room so we found a comfortable place  in the lobby to wait three hours for our ride to the airport.

A Laughing Dove in Jerusalem

It got this name because of its rising and falling laughing cry.



While waiting at the Ben Gurian Airport in Tel Aviv to see if we were able to get on the US Airways' plane, I enjoyed watching the Jewish people coming off their plane and meeting their families. I took the photos with my little camera to be more discreet but some are blurry.

Because the US Airways' plane was all filled up at Te Aviv to North Carolina, we bought a ticket on Easy Jet to fly back to London. It was great to be with the Cambridge Schills  again for a few days.  We appreciated Ryan picking us up and taking us back to the airport.

One night for dinner we went to an English pub and I was able to enjoy wonderful grandchildren and fish and chips again.

Grandpa and Noah hanging out at the pub 

Bella loves to wrestle with her grandpa.

  Ron had the courage to ask this Orthodox Jew if he could take his picture while we were at the North                                          Carolina airport. He was happy to pose for the photo.  

                                                                           
    We had a nice flight to North Carolina and then on to San Francisco. We had a wonderful trip spending Christmas with Ryan and his family in England and also having the opportunity to explore Israel and Jordan. I have enjoyed posting our trip photos on the family blog so you could get a glimpse             of the many wonderful and exciting experiences we had on our tour through the Holy Land.

We want to thank Ryan for all the help he gave us throughout the time we were in Jordan and Isarel so we could have this learning, spiritual and amazing trip! We probably would have never gone to this area if it hadn't been for him. It was a very special experience!