The Jordan Diaries 2005: October 30 Day 4.2 Mt Nebo

Finally, at the end of the very long steep climb the terrain flattened out – we had crested Mt Nebo, on which Moses, leading his people to safety from beyond the Red Sea, some 3000 years before, had stood and gazed out at The Promised Land.

JD176 Looking across to The Promised Land from Mt Nebo

The Biblical spot is marked with a large brazen cruciform staff, placed on a purpose-built platform right on the very edge of the mountain. On a clear day, the rooftops of Bethlehem & Jerusalem are even discernible on the western horizon.

JD169 The Staff of Moses, symbolic brazen cross at Mt Nebo

At the base of the cross is a white marble plaque inscribed in old Arabic

JD172 Arabic inscription at the base of the brazen Staff of Moses Mt Nebo

 For while the law was given through Moses,

      Grace and Truth came through Jesus Christ

JD181 Pope John Paul II monument dated 2000AD at Mt Nebo

The path from the entry gate continued up past a monument to mark a visit by 

Pope John Paul II (2000) and straight to a wide forecourt in front of the Moses Church/Monastery site, spreading from the doors of the 

church building right to the edge of the mountain.

Mt Nebo is some 817m above sea level and the flattened area on which the sacred sites are located is known as Siyagha. It is believed to be the final resting place of Moses, who was himself, denied entry to the Promised Land, and recent research suggests that The Ark of the Covenant relic is also hidden here, possibly in some as yet undiscovered subterranean catacomb.

It felt very much like a spiritual presence was manifest here. Even on these windswept heights, there was quite simply a great sense of peace and serenity…and we were in awe of this feeling, as we stood in amongst the sighing branches of the weeping Cedars of Lebanon... overwhelmed by profoundly moving spiritual moments and we were very reluctant to leave and break the mood.

JD165 Moses Memorial at Mt Nebo

From there we began to wander towards the little stone Moses chapel and passed by the Abu Badd stone, originally used as the door of the Monastery which once stood on this site. The round shape immediately brought to mind Easter readings from the Bible about the discovery that the stone covering the tomb door had been rolled away… and at that moment, things we had long thought, in our child-like naivety, to be a mysterious feat of angelic boulder-shifting magical power, instantly became very clear. Myth-busted! Round slabs of rock, certainly do roll!

JD164 The Abu Badd stone used as the door of the Monastery on this site Mt Nebo

A little further along a curved path, the ancient stone structure of the Monastery, subsequently converted into a very small scale basilica, came into view. This first church on Mt Nebo was constructed in the 2nd half of the 4th century to commemorate the place of Moses' death, though his exact burial site at this location remains unknown.

JD168 Moses Memorial Church at Mt Nebo

The internal construction here had been rather intricate with 3 apses, 2 funeral chapels, a white paved mosaic vestibule and a courtyard. The main apse now houses timber polished benches, and a stone altar at the eastern end, above which are 3 stained glass windows which cast a colourful play of light as they catch the rising sun at morning prayer… it was lovely to sit in the centre of the stone church and spend some long moments absorbing the silence.

JD183 Main apse in Moses Memorial Church Mt Nebo AD 393

  At a later point in its history, other features were added to this church, including a baptistry built against one of the funeral chapel walls and set about a metre lower than the original floor. The rectangular room, still visible, has a cruciform stone font and an amazingly detailed mosaic floor dating from 625 AD

JD188Floor mosaic 625 AD in side chapel Moses Memorial Church Mt Nebo

Inside the dusty rough-hewn stone chapel there was an omnipresent sense of the ancient past, settling over us with a palpable feeling of a quietened spirituality, underlined more so perhaps by the realisation that today was Sunday and only a few hours ago, a service had taken place here, as it had always done, connecting the prayerful down through the ages.

JD191 Rose window over the entry to Moses Memorial Church Mt Nebo

 As we turned to leave, we noticed a caretaker monk sitting quietly in the shadows by the door, with a range of books and postcards spread out on a small wooden table in front of him, for sale for a modest price.The rose window above his head streamed a multi-coloured pattern on to the floor beside him … such beauty in the simple things here, in such a simply beautiful place.