Jordan Day 4 2012 – Citadel, Madaba and Mt. Nebo

Taking a cab to return to our room in Jordan Tower Hotel, the activities for today would be to visit the various attractions within the city of Amman before moving on to another town. One of the reasons the choice of the accommodation was because of its proximity to these attractions, all within walking distance. But it also meant more noises unfortunately.

From the accommodation, we walked towards the Citadel. From the map it seemed like a straight forward walk but had some slope to climb. Furthermore, we had to make a detour along the road to reach the main entrance to the Citadel. Guide service was available and we engaged him to understand the culture and the history of this grand site.

The guide was very informative and brought us around the site, introducing the different buildings and their period of significance. We were then left to roam the area and visit the Archaeological museum within the Citadel after he was done.

Our next stop was to visit the Roman Amphitheatre just across the road from the Citadel. Didn’t stay long as it was just like another Amphitheatre elsewhere. We visited the small museum where they were some exhibits but mostly to take cover from the heat.

It was lunch time and we found one (couldn’t remember the name) that served lunch and offered sweet pastries. Returned back to the hotel for check out and to take over our car from the Reliable Rent a Car representative for travel onwards. As it was challenging to drive out of Amman, we were driven to the outskirts by the representative to the outskirt before I took over as driver. Onwards to Madaba, the Mosaic City.

The drive was pretty easy on the highways though there were many manned portable speed traps. I learnt that drivers tend to share the information if there are speed traps ahead and these drivers coming from the opposite lane would usually flash their headlights to give warnings to slow down. Nice!

Our first stop was to check into Mosaic City Hotel. The hotel was pretty new and within walking distance to the town where the attractions were. Parked our car at the carpark next to the hotel and checked in.

With a map in hand, given by the receptionist, we continued on foot to the attractions Madaba had to offer. St. George church was our first stop.

The town of Madaba was really small and walkable. The next location was the Shrine of Beheading of St. John’s the Baptist.

Below the surface was a museum to explore. There was a really old Moabite well that was said to be functional till date.

Then we walked to the end of main attractions area where the sat the Church of Apostles. This was a church that had the biggest mosaic, covering the whole floor of it. There were some footpath for us to walk about as we explore the massive area to look at the mosaic pictures.

Before walking back to the hotel, we chanced upon a Madaba Archaeological park I and so we went in to look see.

We thought we had enough of mosaics for the day. The next location was to drive to Mt. Nebo not too far from Madaba to catch the sunset.

Drove back to Madaba and walked to the a restaurant recommended by the hotel staff, Haret Jdoudna. It was a beautiful place and a popular and crowded one as well.

Nice little town of Madaba left us with an overdose of Mosaic art.