Madaba

About 40 km south of Amman is the city of Madaba, the major Christian center of the country. For centuries this city has been an example of religious tolerance in the voice of the muezzin which lives with the ringing of bells. Muslims make up two thirds of the population and Christians, the other third. It's known for its spectacular Byzantine mosaics, one of the most famous being a mosaic map of Jerusalem and the Holy Land from the sixth century made up of two million pieces of brightly colored local stone. It's the first map of the and geographic testimony of Palestine, Egypt, the Nile Delta and Syria.