I'm just mad about Madaba...

You may or may not have caught this picture among the many I posted from the Jewish Quarter last Thursday.(http://picasaweb.google.com/FrBart/0702JewishQuarter). That's me in front of a mosaic map on the Wall of the Cardo (the remains of the main Byzantine Road through the center of the Old City). The mosaic is a copy of a portion of a map which exists on the floor of an Orthodox Church in Madaba, Jordan. I kept encountering this image when reading in preparation for my trip to the Holy Land and among all the things I have been looking forward to seeing in the Holy Land, the Madaba map is near the top of the list. It is an important artifact for many reasons: it provides details about the Holy Land that are not available in other places. It depicts the Holy Land from Lebanon to the Nile and from the Mediterranean to the East Desert. At it's center (in keeping with the cosmology of its day) is this very detailed artistic representation of Jerusalem. it also gives some details about other cities. Geographically, the mosaic map is fairly accurate. 6th Century Cartographics were pretty amazing.

I will see the real thing in a couple of weeks in Jordan and I am very much looking forward to that. But in the meantime I have become somewhat obsessed with images of the Jerusalem part of the map - depicted here on the wall behind me. I have bought a shirt, several post cards and a magnet with the image on it.

On our way into Jericho yesterday, we stopped at the the Mosaic Center of Jericho, an artists' Cooperative that is teaching and preserving the ancient art of Mosaic. The director gave us a tour of the great works they are doing and there among their completed works, was my beloved Madabe depiction of Jerusalem )It could have been mine for $800, but I am planning to make an offer on the original when we are in Madaba :)

I was in Madaba Map heaven in the Mosaic Co-op, but there was lots and lots of other really remarkable work. You can see lots of photos at: http://picasaweb.google.com/FrBart/0706JerichoMosaicWorkshopZaccheusTreeAndTelExcavations.

I'm sure I will have a lot more to say about the Madaba map when I visit Madaba later this month.