3-Day Petra, Wadi Rum and Dead Sea Tour with Madaba and Mount Nebo

MADABA & MOUNT NEBO

• Madaba, known as the "City of Mosaics," is best known for its spectacular Byzantine and Umayyad mosaics. Madaba is home to the famous 6th-century Mosaic Map of Jerusalem and the Holy Land. With two million pieces of vividly coloured local stone, it depicts hills and valleys, villages and towns as far as the Nile Delta.

• The Madaba Mosaic Map covers the floor of the Greek Orthodox Church of St. George, which is located northwest of the city centre. The church was built in 1896 AD over the remains of a much earlier 6th-century Byzantine church. The mosaic panel enclosing the map was originally around 15.6 x 6 m, or 94 sq. m., only about a quarter of which is preserved.

• According to the final chapter of Deuteronomy, Mount Nebo is where the Hebrew prophet Moses was given a view of the Promised Land that God was giving to the Hebrews. "And Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho." (Deuteronomy 34:1).

• According to Jewish and Christian tradition, Moses was buried on this mountain by God himself, and his final resting place is unknown. Scholars continue to dispute whether the mountain currently known as Nebo is the same as the mountain referred to in the Torah. Islamic belief holds that Musa (Moses) was buried not on the mountain but a few kilometres to the west, somewhere beyond the River Jordan.

DEAD SEA TOURS

• The lowest body of water on earth, the lowest point on earth, the world's richest source of natural salts, and one of the most spectacular and dramatic natural landscapes in the whole world. Also known for the Biblical story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, which was turned into salt, the Dead Sea speaks for itself, with no living fish in it.

• The extremely high content of salts and minerals gives its waters renowned curative powers and therapeutic qualities recognized since the days of Herod the Great more than 2,000 years ago, but also prevents anything from living in or developing there. Because it is four times as salty as seawater, swimming in the Dead Sea is an incredible feeling, as it is impossible to sink in the thick brine.

• Scientifically speaking, its water contains more than 35 different types of minerals that are essential for the health and care of the body's skin, including magnesium, calcium, potassium, bromine, sulfur, and iodine. They are well known for relieving pains and suffering caused by arthritis, rheumatism, psoriasis, eczema, headache, and foot ache while nourishing and softening the skin.

• Patients come from all around the world to take advantage of these therapeutic qualities. Jordanian Dead Sea bath salts and cosmetic products are marketed and renowned worldwide.

PETRA

• Visit the world wonder, the red-rose city of Petra, carved out of the red-rose sandstone 2,000 years ago by the Arab Nabataeans. These brilliant traders controlled the most important trade routes of their time, which made them wealthy and open to the best-known civilizations. This is reflected in the architecture of their temples and funeral tombs, carved by their own hands as a harmonious mixture of these great civilizations.

WADI RUM TOUR

• "Rum the magnificent vast... echoing and Godlike" - Lawrence of Arabia. The most spectacular desert scenery in the world, Wadi Rum is located in the south of Jordan. The dramatic beauty of wonderful sandstone mountains with different colours, from white to pink and even red, provides a unique experience and ideal sites for trekking, combined with the local Bedouin experience of travelling and camping. The high red sand dunes, narrow canyons, low valleys (wadis), terrains, and tall mountains were created by a hundred million years of erosion and volcanic activity. Wadi Rum is the home of the Bedouins, the soul of Jordanian culture, who have lived there for hundreds of years, continually preserving the same values and traditions of many nomadic Arabian tribes, passed down from the time of the Nabataeans and Thamodians, who left inscriptions that can still be seen in different places there.

• Today, Wadi Rum is a protected area covering 720 km, run by ASEZA and RSCN, and managed locally by the same Bedouins who offer jeep tours, guiding, camel riding, and camping services.

• This tour is also offered in Irish, Italian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, and Ukrainian.