mad about mosaics in madaba

Well...guess what? We began with another freezing morning and numb body parts as we walked around the streets of Madaba. This town was a large Christian town in the Roman and Byzantine periods and then disappeared under the sands of time. If it had not been for a second group of Christians being exiled here to Madaba in the 1890's there would have remained some 12 Churches and homes hidden under the ground. We were fortunate enough to explore some of the discovered mosaics. Special views included the famous map of the Holy land in mosaic form. There were earlier mosaics that actually showed faces and animal forms. A special one was of a dancer (?Salome) dancing with a naked man. Many of the mosaics were covered in dust and J2 wanted to get out the vacuum cleaner and clean them up!!! The other thing that Madaba does is replica mosaics with a college for mosaicists. The hotel is even called the Mosaic City Hotel. We met the uncle of Julia Sawahlia (a British actress in many films) and J2 got to try out a hand made, Bedouin style dress in the shop. The time ended with a late lunch, warming cup of tea and the opportunity to say goodbye to Jamila. Her parting gift was to take us on another walk to the best bakery in town. There is a tradition that after Friday Mosque the locals will go and eat a special dessert. This is layered pastry,(or was it sponge?), filled with a mozarella like cheese, covered in honey syrup, chopped pistachios and cooked. Sounds weird but it was so good we had seconds. It was straight out of the oven, the best way to eat it. Great way to say goodbye.