Saint George Church - Mosaic Map
King Talal Street
About
Madaba…the City of Mosaics! An enormous number of Byzantine mosaics have been uncovered throughout Madaba, but none compares with the Madaba Map. The Map mosaic was made during the 6th century showing the whole of the Holy Land. It was discovered in 1896. It was during the Byzantine-Umayyad period that several Christian churches were built. The Church of the Map and the Church of Prophet Elijah among them. The mosaic map consists of about 2 million colored stone tiles and is preserved in the floor of the Greek Orthodox Basilica of St George. Throughout Madaba can be found hundreds of 5th – 7th century mosaics depicting flowers, plants, exotic beasts, mythological scenes and many other subjects. Madaba was once a Moabite city and was mentioned in the Bible in the books of Numbers (21.30) and Joshua (13.9). The wife of Prophet Moses, a Moabite woman, came from this area.
