Promised Land

Top of the mountain where I can see Dead Sea in the distance (left side)

"Go up unto...Mount Nebo in Moab, across from Jericho, and view Canaan, the land
I am giving the Israelites as their own possession. There on the mountain that
you have climbed you will die."
- Deuteronomy 32:49-50 -

And there was I standing on that mountain. A biblican place full of history, one of the important pilgrimage site located in Jordan. On this mountain is where Moses is said to have seen the Promised Land, a land he was himself forbidden to enter. He died at aged 120 and was later buried in the area, but the exact location of the burial site is unknown.

Enough about the history, the complex itself is a sanctuary completed with museum, some stone marks, old church, old ancient mozaics, a hugh artistic monument inspired by bronze snake upon a pole used by Moses, and shaded with some pine and olive trees .

I couldn't believe that we were supposed to be able to view Dead Sea, Jericho, Jordan River and Jerusalem (which is in Israel - different country!) on a clear day. Unfortunatelly it was a bit hazy when we were there, I could only see the Dead Sea vaguely in the distance.

This plaque is a direction finder points that shows various locations throughout the region.

I never seen a bus full of group tour in town, but there were few of them there up in that mountain. Every group accompanied with tour leader who were busy explaining the history of the place. I couldn't understand a thing, as they spoke no English. Not sure, but they might be Italian, Greek, Japanese, or Korean, and Philipino. But out of the blue, I heard someone said "Ini loh tempatnya Musa....",.. "panas ya, mustinya bawa payung", "jangan cepet-cepet!", "ayo-ayo foto disini"...... a group of people who are definitely from Indonesia!. :D They were just practically walked past us, and ignored us. I and hubby could only smile and look at each other, amaze to see a bunch of people talking Bahasa. ;p

After about 2 hours wondering around and took pictures, we headed back. On the way back we dropped by to a mozaic and souvenir shop full of tourist. Lots of nice things there, i felt like I shopping! Best thing was that we got half price discount on everything in the shop as we are residence of Amman. So I knew that they charge tourist double price! What a pricey...
As we have to go through a town called Madaba, we did a bit of exploration there. We went to St George's Church, where we saw interesting mozaics. We were tried to see other recommended church, but it was closed, and I started to get tired from long walk,...we were then drove back home, which only took us about 45 minutes.

Nice day, good to be out and about again. Check out more pictures HERE.