Day 26: Dead Sea - Petra, Jordan

Movenpick Petra Hotel

17 January 2026

We headed off in the bus this morning to nearby Mount Nebo. It turns out this is the mountain where Moses supposedly viewed the Promised Land and a Franciscan order built a monastery on the site. (Someone had a vision there, so obviously this was the right location.)

The weather was perfect - cold but sunny, with a clear blue sky. The monastery (called the Church of Moses) is built of sandstone at the top of the mountain and is quite beautiful. We were lucky there were not too many other people there, so it was peaceful and still. I understand why they chose this spot. It has a serene atmosphere.

There were a number of dogs around, as Franciscans believe dogs have souls and will go to heaven, so our tour guide fed them - which was nice.

You get a beautiful view of the Jordan Valley from the top and there are olive trees everywhere, including one planted 25 years ago by Pope John Paul II. Outside the monastery is a beautiful bronze sculpture of a snake on a pole, called the 'Brazen Snake Monument' - supposedly referencing Moses lifting a snake on his staff and also the crucifixion, made by an Italian sculptor. Quite beautiful.

And, inside the church, there is a wonderful Byzantine floor mosaic showing the relationship between man and animals, made in 530 AD. During the 8th century, the monks covered it with a geometric mosaic, to prevent it being destroyed when iconoclasm was at its height. It was only rediscovered in the 1970s and is now considered an absolute work of art. It certainly is fun - depicting an ostrich, a striped wild horse and the artist's version of a giraffe, which looks like a spotted camel. (No one in Jordan had seen a giraffe in the 6th century.)

From there, we were taken to a mosaic workshop, supposedly to see how mosaics were made (which we did) but then we were led from the tiny workshop through a door into an enormous shop front, with literally thousands of mosaics for sale. It felt like going into the Tardis. There were very few prices listed and, even if there were, the tour guide said we were expected to haggle. Things were very expensive, as mosaics take a long time to make. They had mosaic everything - chairs, tables, wall hangings, pottery, jewellery and more. They also had a lot of other souvenirs - like Dead Sea cosmetics, trinkets, pottery, bookmarks, scarves, t-shirts - whatever you could possibly want. However, if you even so much as looked at anything, let alone picked it up, a sales person latched on to you and followed you around offering you special deals. I've never seen so many sales people in my life! I ended up buying some spoon rests made in Palestine, as they were relatively moderately priced. I haggled a little bit, but probably ended up paying more than I could have. I then escaped outside and waited with Jim next to the bus. I'm sure Viking gets a commission for bring busloads of tourists to this place every week.

After nearly everyone had bought something, we hopped back on the bus and were taken to the nearby town of Madaba to see a Greek Orthodox Church with the oldest map of the Holy Land in the world - as a mosaic in the floor. Unfortunately, it has been damaged over the years by an earthquake and construction in the church. Someone thought it was a good idea to put a pillar in the middle of it! About a third of the original map has been saved and people come from all over the world to see it. It was actually very interesting looking at all the names of the cities in Ancient Greek and trying to puzzle them out. It is relatively geographically accurate, showing the Dead Sea with Jerusalem and Jericho around it. Jerusalem is depicted as larger than it should be as it was considered the centre of the world at the time by Jews, Christians and Muslims.

After that, we walked up the street to a family-owned house/restaurant for lunch. There were lots of tourist shops, but the vendors are much more respectful than in Egypt and don't accost you too much. The streets are not exactly clean, with dirt and broken footpaths in places, but there isn't too much rubbish and the traffic isn't crazy. It actually reminds me of the streets of Greece, though I didn't say that to Jim. (I think he would have been offended.) 

We had quite a nice lunch at the restaurant - traditional food, with the ubiquitous hummus, baba ganoush, and salad with pomegranates - and then we were given half an hour to stroll back to the bus through the streets and do some shopping. It was nice to be able to go in and out of shops in a normal way and so I think everyone bought something. I bought a camel Christmas decoration, some bookmarks, a small bronze camel and a pendant. I haggled, as I was supposed to, and felt quite pleased with myself.

After Madaba, we had a long drive of 3 hours to Petra. We stopped a couple of times on the way, to see a castle on a nearby hill and to have a toilet stop, so we arrived at our hotel around 5.30pm. It is literally across the road from the entrance to Petra, so tomorrow we'll have any easy walk there!