St. George Greek Orthodox Church

A short walk through an uber touristy pedestrian mall is the still active St. George Church with Madaba's most famous attraction.

This is the huge mosaic map of the Middle East from Lebanon to the Nile Delta and is the oldest map of the Holy Land, being crsfted between 542 and 570. When Madaba was destroyed, it was covered, and was found when a new church was being constructed in 1884.The original map would have been 21 by 7m and had over 2 million pieces.

The interior of the church is a beautiful and elaborate Orthodox church and all the "paintings" normal to churches are actually mosaics.Read more