~Not All Who Wander Are Lost~: From Madaba to the Dead Sea

On day three of Kristen's trip, we picked up my friend Sara from UChicago and headed down the King's Highway to visit Madaba, Mt. Nebo, and the Dead Sea.

Madaba is a quaint market town that I had briefly stopped through in 2009 with my sister, but had never spent time in. I can't believe what I was missing! I loved it. It had the sweetest streets and a lot to see. Madaba is famous for its Byzantine-era mosaics, particularly the mosaic map in St. George's Church which is the oldest known map of Palestine (560AD!) and shows the major biblical sites from Egypt to Palestine. In addition to the map, we stopped in the Archaeological Park which has tons of mosaics from sixth century Byzantine villas, situated in a section of Roman ruins that are still standing. They were definitely mosaics from the richer inhabitants of the town, but it was cool to see the houses and family depictions of that time.

Outer walls of the Madaba Archaeological Park

Inside the beautiful Greek Orthodox St. George's Church

The oldest map of Palestine--the circular image at the top is a
depiction of the walled city of Jersualem

I loved these sleepy streets in the early morning of Ramadan

Pretty, even if Arabic calligraphy is hard to read!

Another quaint street

Hijabi Barbies

Mosaic of a Byzantine villa

Mosaic of Byzantine era family with their pet falcon

Mosaic of a Byzantine family with their pet cherub (?)

My favorite--a modern day mosaic of the king

After popping into some souvenir shops, we headed over to Mt. Nebo for a bit and then to the Dead Sea Spa and Resort. This was my second time at Mt. Nebo and only my third time at the Dead Sea. The first time I went to the Dead Sea with my sister in 2009, we went to Amman Beach which is the cheaper, public beach and not too crowded during the day (but it can get crowded at night when most Jordanians go for a swim). It was a great experience, although changing in the un-airconditioned bathhouse after our dip was the hottest I've ever been in my life. I think at the time it was around 10JD to get in, but now it's around 15JD. I went again last summer, but went to the fancier O-Beach for a coupon and 20JD which had a swim up bar, two restaurants, and bunch of cabanas to relax and spend the day. The only catch was that it there was no access down to the shores of the Dead Sea (that I could find!)--it just overlooks the Dead Sea--which works if you've been there before, but definitely not for first time visitors.

With all of that in mind, I solicited friends for recommendations on a new place to try that would have both access to the Dead Sea as well as a pool and more comfortable facilities. We ended up at the Dead Sea Spa and Resort which was awesome--25JD including 10JD worth of food vouchers which we used at their surprisingly tasty poolside cafe. After lunch we headed down to the Dead Sea which had buckets of free mud to slather on ourselves as well as nearby showers to rinse the salty sting and mud off. At one point, Kristen and I were approached by a French woman who made us feel how soft her skin was after she exfoliated using the mud and the small pebbles along the shoreline. She was so convincing we ended up covered in mud a few minutes later (although Kristen committed more than I did to the slightly stinky substance). After we had our fill of the salt and mud, we headed back up poolside to relax for a bit before heading back to Amman in time for iftar at Hashim's.

Sara and I on Mt. Nebo

Looking out towards the promised land on Mt. Nebo

Essential directions, particularly the "swim on your back" since
flipping over on your stomach in the highly salinated water
can be dangerous (it's surprisingly hard to flip back over)