Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Madaba is easily and best explored on foot. With its lively shops dangling with strings
of shoes, skinned goats tended by men in white Wellington boots, sewing machines rat-
tling off repairs by the roadside, piles of fat cabbages, and giant aluminium pots and pans,
Madaba is a typical King's Highway town. Unlike most other towns along the highway,
however, it has a good choice of hotels and restaurants.
Less than an hour by public transport from Amman, Madaba makes an alternative base
for exploring King's Highway and Dead Sea highlights. You can even come by taxi from
Queen Alia International Airport, bypassing Amman altogether.
History
The region around Madaba has been inhabited for around 4500 years and was one of the
towns divided among the 12 tribes of Israel at the time of the Exodus. The region passed
from Ammonites to Israelites, Nabataeans and eventually, by AD 106, to Romans, under
which Madaba became a prosperous provincial town with colonnaded streets and impress-
ive public buildings. The prosperity continued during the Christian Byzantine period, with
the construction of churches and the lavish mosaics that decorated them.
The town was abandoned for about 1100 years after a devastating earthquake in AD
747. In the late 19th century, 2000 Christians from Karak migrated to Madaba after a
bloody dispute with Karak's Muslims. The new arrivals found the town's signature mosa-
ics when they started digging foundations for houses. News that a mosaic map of the Holy
Land had been found in St George's Church in Madaba reached Europe in 1897, leading
to a flurry of excavation that continues to this day. Various NGOs have assisted in restora-
tion and rejuvenation projects in Madaba; at the time of writing, US Aid was taking an
active initiative in this field. To find out more, see
www.jordan.usaid.gov
.
