St George's Church, MadabaMay 31, 2010
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Inside St George's Church
The Mosaic Map
One of the many other beautifully made mosaics inside
| Good news! Riffat is finally feeling sufficiently better to be able to make it out of the room. After days of being stuck in one room, it must have been good to finally go somewhere. We had a modest outing, taking a taxi to avoid the short walk to the church, which is the main sight in town and where most of the sit-down places to eat are. St George's is a fairly ordinary 19th Century Greek Orthodox church, remarkable for one thing. When it was being built, the remains of a much older byzantine church was found on the same site. Amongst the rubble they found a mosaic from AD 560. It was a map showing all the major biblical sights of the Middle East. It's still the oldest map of Palestine in existence and has provided many historical insights. It would have contained more than two million pieces originally, though much of it is lost now. The church and the mosaic was interesting, but more than anything it was good to get out and see something of where we were. Remi and I had got a fair impression of the town on our various trips out to fetch supplies, but poor Riffat had been almost entirely in the hotel room since we left the "stinky pit". |
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