Today was our biblical interlude in Jordan.
We visited Madaba, Mount Nebo and Bethany Beyond Jordan.
Madaba contains an amazing 6th century Byzantine mosaic of the Christian’s holy sites, east and west of the Dead Sea. There are only fragments left and photographs don’t do it justice.
Mount Nebo overlooks Israel and the Dead Sea and is supposedly the site where Moses met his maker.
While Bethany Beyond Jordan is apparently the part of the Jordan River where John became the Baptist.
The electronic guided tour, that you are forced to take, is aimed at the devout believer. The language and accompanying sound effects are a total oversell of what is actually there.
It’s no longer the Garden of Eden.
The mighty Jordan River isn’t what it used to be in biblical, or even recent, times and has dropped about 5 meters in the last 50 years.
Its muddy colour now resembles the Yarra after heavy rain.
I was asked by one of the local guides if I was a Christian, I replied that no, I was an historian.
He seemed happy with that response.
