Jordan Day 10/15: Mt Nebo

Mt Nebo sits about 2300 feet above sea level and on a clear day you can see the Dead Sea, Bethlehem, Jericho, the hills around Jerusalem and the Jordan River. The day we were there, we could hardly see anything through the dust. This is where it is believed that Moses looked at the Promised Land before he died as recorded in Deuteronomy 34:1-5. In 2 Maccabees 2:4-7, it is said that the prophet Jeremiah hid the Arc of the Covenant here in a cave before the destruction of Jerusalem.

In the 3rd or 4th century, monks from Egypt came here and built a small church on one of the peaks to commemorate the death of Moses. By the late-4th century, pilgrims were shown an empty "tomb of Moses." It was destroyed by an earthquake a few years later and then rebuilt again.

Then it was expanded into a large basilica with a stunning collection of Byzantine mosaics which are still preserved in the present-day shrine.

this exquisite mosaic floor was made in 530AD

The site was excavated in the early 1930s.

the 1933 archaeological expedition

more mosaics outside

this large rolling stone was used as a door in a Byzantine monastery

This large sculpture, the Brazen Serpent Monument, was done by an Italian artist, Giovanni Fantoni. It is to merge the serpent that Moses lifted up in the desert (Numbers 21:4-9) and Jesus' cross (John 3:14-17).