Archaeology: The Madaba mosaic map

This mosaic map of Palestine was made about A.D. 560 to serve as the decorative floor of the St. George's Orthodox Church in Madaba, Jordan near the Dead Sea in modern Jerusalem.

It was discovered late in the 19th century, during an excavation and reconstruction of the mosaic floor. The current church was built in 1896 over the remains of a Byzantine church, which is believed to have been built at the end of the 6th or at the beginning of the 7th century A.D.

This oldest map of Palestine yet found shows the locations of dozens of places where important biblical events occurred. The central element is a large depiction of Jerusalem as it appeared at the height of the Byzantine period. The map depicts some famous Old City structures such as the Damascus Gate, St. Stephen's Gate, the Gold Gate, the gate leading to Mt. Zion, the Citadel (Tower of David), the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and the Cardo Maximus (the major street running across the city from north to south).

Kyle Campbell