Madaba

Madaba is old enough to appear in the Hebrew Bible as Medeba, a town of the Moabite plateau fought over by Moab and Israel and mentioned on the Mesha Stele found at nearby Dhiban. Under Nabataean and then Roman rule it was a prosperous provincial town on the road system of the plateau, with a colonnaded street, and it kept its importance into the Byzantine centuries, when it became a bishopric. That is the period the town is now known for: in the fifth and sixth centuries its churches and houses were floored with mosaics by workshops of unusual skill.

The great earthquake of 749 and the shifting of trade left Medeba largely deserted, and for more than a thousand years the site was a mound of ruins used by herders. Its modern history begins in 1880, when 90 Arab Christian families from Karak, led by two Italian priests of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, petitioned the Ottoman authorities and were allowed to resettle the ruins, by then a bare tell. Building their houses and churches, they found mosaic floor after mosaic floor beneath the soil.

In 1884 workmen preparing the site of a new Orthodox church uncovered the floor of a Byzantine basilica carrying a map of the Holy Land in coloured stone; the full mosaic came to light in 1896 as the new church was floored, and it has been studied ever since as the oldest surviving map of the region, with Jerusalem shown in detail. The town grew around that discovery as well as around farming, gained an archaeological park and a mosaic school in the 20th century, and its population expanded further with Palestinian arrivals after 1948 and 1967. Today it is the capital of Madaba Governorate and among Jordan's ten largest cities.

Madaba's identity rests on two things: mosaics and a long coexistence between Christian and Muslim families. Christians are a large minority here, a far higher share than the national figure, split mainly between the Greek Orthodox and Latin Catholic churches, with Melkite and Anglican congregations as well. Church towers and minarets stand within sight of each other, feast days are marked publicly on both sides, and mixed neighbourhoods are the norm rather than the exception.

Tribal identity matters here as much as religion. The founding families came from Karak with their clan structures intact, and the old family names are still recognised locally; elders mediate disputes, and weddings and funerals are large, public affairs that draw the whole town. Hospitality is emphatic, and the shared meal — a tray of mansaf eaten with the right hand — is its highest expression.

The mosaic tradition has been deliberately revived. The institute beside the archaeological park trains craftspeople in lifting, conserving and making mosaics, several workshops in the centre sell their work, and restoration projects across Jordan draw on people trained here. Handicraft cooperatives, some of them run by women, produce embroidery, ceramics and rugs. Visitors are a normal part of town life, and the pedestrian street near St George's Church has an easy, unpushy atmosphere unusual for a place so used to coaches.

About 122,000 people were counted in the town in 2021, with more in the villages of Madaba Governorate across the plateau. Farming remains important — wheat, barley, olives, tomatoes and sheep on the rolling land between the town and the escarpment — but most households depend on public-sector jobs, the army and security services, small businesses and work in Amman, which is close enough to commute to daily. Tourism supports hotels, restaurants, guides and the craft workshops of the centre, and the nearby airport provides another source of employment.

The town has a settled, family-centred rhythm. Bakeries and vegetable stalls open early, offices and shops close for a few hours in the afternoon and reopen into the evening, and the streets around the market are busiest after dark in summer. The weekend falls on Friday and Saturday, though many Christian families keep Sunday morning for church as well. Water is supplied on a rota and stored in rooftop tanks, as everywhere in Jordan.

Newer housing is spreading west and north across former fields, and the King's Highway through the centre carries steady traffic between Amman and the south. High youth unemployment and the cost of housing are the usual complaints, and many young people leave for Amman or the Gulf. In spring, families picnic on the green plateau and along the Mount Nebo road; in winter, life moves indoors and the streets empty early.

Madaba eats the food of the plateau, built on lamb, bread, yoghurt, olive oil and the vegetables grown around it. Mansaf is the ceremonial dish: lamb simmered in a sauce made from jameed, hard dried fermented sheep's yoghurt, and served over rice on sheets of thin shrak bread, eaten from a shared tray with the right hand at weddings, funerals and Friday lunches. The families who founded the town came from Karak, the heartland of jameed, and take it seriously.

Everyday meals are simpler. Breakfast is hummus, foul — fava beans stewed with oil, lemon and cumin — falafel, and labneh strained from yoghurt and eaten with za'atar, the thyme, sesame and sumac mixture baked into the flat bread called manaqish. Galayet bandora, tomatoes fried hard with onion and chilli, is the standby supper; maqluba, a pot of rice, aubergine and meat turned upside down onto a tray, and musakhan, chicken roasted on bread heaped with onions and sumac, appear on family tables. Stuffed vegetables, mahshi, and mulukhiyah, a green leaf stew, round out the repertoire.

The centre's restaurants serve long mezze of hummus, mutabbal, tabbouleh, fattoush and grilled meats, and several are licensed, so local arak — the aniseed spirit clouded with water — and Jordanian wine appear on tables more readily than in most small towns. Sweets mean knafeh, cheese pastry soaked in syrup, and trays of baklava at feast days, while the daily drinks are sweet tea with mint or sage and small cups of cardamom-scented coffee.