Madaba, a few km south of Amman, is a bustling town. Its most famous feature - and the reason we visited - is the ornate Orthodox Christian church, St George's, which is built on the site of a much larger Byzantine church. In the floor is a mosaic map of the middle east dating to about the 6th century. The visible part of the map is about 6m by 2m, though the original covered some 16m by 6m and used over two million tiny coloured stones.

The map takes a little getting used to as the top is East, not North as we are used to nowadays, but is in spectacular detail. On the map can be clearly seen the Dead Sea and Jerusalem which even shows a street plan. It is this that makes the Madaba map the best of its kind.

The church can get rather crowded and you may have to wait your turn to view the map.

Madaba street scene

Entrance to St George's -"'the Church of the Map"

John baptises Christ in the River Jordan

The ornate church interior, but note that everyone is looking downwards at the mosaic!

Part of the mosaic map. The River Jordan and the Dead Sea are in the centre, with Jerusalem bottom right

Hotels in Jordan

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