Jordan part 2
Mount Nebo, Mosaics, St George’s church and Karak Castle
The Abu Badd, the rolling stone door of a Byzantine Monestry
The next day, Fawaz has us up even earlier. We’re on the bus by 7am and heading for Mt Nebo. Mount Nebo is an elevated ridge located in Jordan, approximately 700 metres above sea level. Part of the Abarim mountain range, Mount Nebo is mentioned in the Bible as the place where Moses was granted a view of the Promised Land before his death. I can’t imagine that he was in anyway disappointed with the view.
It’s an amazing tranquil place with olive trees along the paths. It feels very serene and you feel the need to speak in hushed tones. My phone gets a welcome to Israel text and know we're not far from Jerusalem. The views are extensive. Fawaz points out the Dead Sea, Bethlehem and even Jerusalem but even though we are early there is already a heat haze which obscures some of the cities from view. As a good catholic girl, I am very familiar with all of these names but to see them on the horizon has a very strange, surreal feel about it.
L-R This is a stone monument dedicated to the visit of Pope John Paul II Memorial Church of Moses on Mount Nebo. Its a very interesting sculpture very tactile. Memorial of Moses. The sculpture of a Brazen Serpent of Moses Memorial Church, Nehushtan, is the serpentine cross that stands on the terrace it was created by the Italian artist Fian Paolo Fantoni. It recalls the bronze serpent on a pole which god told Moses to erect to protect his people from the poisonous snakes that god himself had sent as punishment. It was enough to look at the bronze serpent erected by prophet Moses in order to be healed and saved.
At the top is a Memorial Church of Moses (which I do not have a photo of the outside of, for some reason), apparently reconstructed in the 5th century, from a 4th century small monastery built by Egyptian monks. It has been turned into a basilica and contains some brilliant Byzantine mosaic remnants. Dating back to 530AD the mosaics have been well preserved and restored and portray images of depict the entire route of the King’s highway and Byzantine hunters and the most wonderful spotted camel thought to be a giraffe (what does a giraffe look like? It looks like a camel with spots!) It is wonderful and cool in there and the mosaics are stunning, you could look at them for hours, finding something new all the time.
They do inspire the conversation as to how they are created. It is wonderful then that we are taken to a local mosaic workshop, The Tree of life Mosaic Handicraft Center in Madaba, which is supported and patronised by the Jordanian Queen Rania. It is a non-profit organisation, employing 35 artists some of which suffer from different types of disabilities. They aim to preserve ancient Byzantine history by using the same stones, designs and patterns which existed in the Holy land thousands of years ago. You can see how they are created using the same techniques and historical methods . The workshop representative who spoke amazing English, (learnt exclusively from the Prince of Bel Air) explains how the design is drawn first on fabric, then created in coloured tiles (hand cut from rods of coloured rock, locally sourced) which are glued to the fabric with flour paste glue, the spaces filled in with white tiles pieces, then the frame back board is glued on top, the entire thing turned upside down and the fabric and glue removed with soap and water. Finally, the gaps are filled with grout. It is absolutely clear that these are created by talented artists who spend 100’s of hours completing these intricate works of art.
Through a small door is an enormous air-conditioned shop with masterpieces on every wall, and objects d’art everywhere else. There is thyme tea, which is hot, sweet and delicious and we are invited to buy an amazing piece, which can be shipped home. I feel terrible, that I buy nothing (especially when I think about my own gallery) even though I absolutely adore the tree of life tables.
Onwards again and we stop at St George’s church in the centre of Madaba. The Greek Orthodox church exterior hides what is known as the Madaba Mosaic map. Part of a floor mosaic in the early Byzantine church, this awesome map depicts part of the Middle East and contains the oldest surviving original cartographic depiction of the Holy Land and especially Jerusalem. It dates to the sixth century AD. In 614, Madaba was conquered by the Sasanian Empire. In the eighth century, the ruling Muslim Umayyad Caliphate had some figural motifs removed from the mosaic. In 746, Madaba was largely destroyed by an earthquake and subsequently abandoned. It is the oldest known geographic floor mosaic in art history. It has been used for the localisation and verification of biblical sites. Some bright spark decided to build a church over the top and put a pillar right in the centre! Regrettably, the church is in the middle of renovations and a lot of the art work is covered in plastic.
Lunch is some pre-ordered pasties which are delicious eaten at 11:30. A quick stop at a local supermarket and everyone tops up with snacks and drinks and eaten on the bus. We travel along desert like roads for an hour or more, punctuated by sheep, ponies and camels and the occasional gypsy and Bedouin tent. Fawaz is proud to tell us that Jordan has no homeless people. These people all have homes for the winter and choose to be outside for the summer.
The Karak castle comes into view, standing impressively above the town of Al Karak. An imposing sight on the mountain top. I was a little concerned that we would spend the whole hour outside in the sun as the temperature has again risen to 40 degrees but actually there are a lot of rooms still intact kitchens, the barracks, the officers’ quarters. There are all behind thick walls, making the rooms cool. The rooms are all generous in size and it's easy to understand how the castle was used by so many for 100's and 100's of years.
It has a long history of changing hands since its construction in the 1140's Kerak Castle was able to control Bedouin herders as well as the trade routes from Damascus to Egypt and Mecca. It was still in use during the Ottoman period until around 1890's While Kerak Castle had historically been used to protect the assets of crusader states in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, today its job is much more mundane. The city bordering on Kerak Castle is home to roughly 170,000 people and is a "lively” tourist destination, and played a part in the 2005 film Kingdom of Heaven.
Back on the bus we head now for Petra and little Petra. When we leave, we drive only 4mins before Fawaz stops the bus and rushes out. He comes back with a tray of harissa. A sponge cake made with semolina and soaked with sugar water with lemon and rose water. Highly recommend it (here is a link to the recipe: https://palestineinadish.com/recipes/harisseh ). Then a long journey of several hours before we reach Little Petra.
So join me next week for Petra and little Petra!
