Nebo mount
The Nébo mount is at ten minutes of road of Madaba.
It is perhaps the site more venerated of Jordan.
The Nébo mount is the site of Pisgah, the site supposed of died of Brace and its place of burial.
A small church was built at this place by the first Byzantine Christians in 393 a. J.C and was widened little by little.
At the 7th century, it was then about a vast Byzantine complex that the pilgrims of the whole world came to visit.
The pilgrimage left Jerusalem, passed by Jericho, Ayun Moussa (sources of Brace) and the Nébo mount, and ended in a bathe reconstituting in the naturally hot water basins of Ma' in.
Among the structures built at the 4th century, only a few blocks of limestone (outside the current building) and some pavements of mosaic remain. One notices a cross close to the furnace bridge which marked the place where the death of Brace was commemorated.
Since 1933, the sanctuary is the subject of continual excavations and work of restoration under the auspice of Franciscains of the Holy Land.
The pavement of the most prestigious mosaic was in the baptistry (completed into 531). Its superb drawings represent scenes of the pastoral life and scenes of hunting, describing lions, panther, bear, zebra, zebu, camel mottled, and what seems to be an ostrich.
These animals were common in Jordan until their extinction due to hunting at the beginning of this century.
The majority of the mosaics of the central nave of the basilica are fixed on the walls of the modern building which was built to protect the sanctuary.
A small modern monastery shelters today the community franciscaine and a team of archeologists.
Of a platform located in front of the church, there is an extraordinary sight on the luxuriant valley of the Jordan and the scintillating Dead Sea.
In clear weather, one can see the roofs of Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
With the mount Nébo (1JD), one finds Ibrahim, who will be used to us as guide.
One will eat in Madaba under the blow of 16 H (with our return) in a local restaurant (1 JD for 2). One makes then a small ballade downtown.
One spends our second night in the same hotel.
