Oh Hey Holy Land

So last weekend I went on a grand tour of tourist attractions God created to make sure that, Jews, Muslims, and Christians would always have enough places to pray, make money, and argue about. God did a really nice job so he has been resting for awhile, and as a result most of the holy stuff around here is really old.

But anyway, irreverence aside, sites in Jordan appear in the Torah, Bible, and Qur'an a whole heck of a lot. Madaba a city I plan to visit again tomorrow (this time to find a hot spring) is mentioned more times in the Bible than Jerusalem (Moses sp

ent a fair bit of time hanging out there). Plus, Jesus is believed to have been baptized on the east side of the river Jordan at a place called Bethany-Beyond-the-Jordan, thereby helping invent a sacrament that I like to refer to as Hanley family job security.

So anyway, last Saturday I did the tourist thing at:

Bethany-Beyond-the-Jordan - see above

Mt. Nebo - For those of you who haven't studied your Old Testament lately, Mt. Nebo is where Moses looked across the Jordan valley into the Promised Land known variously as Israel, Palestine, The Land of Canaan, or Disneyland depending on who you ask. The last one is used by overly sensitive American college students afraid of offen

ding Palestinians who might be eavesdropping on said Americans discussing travel plans.

Madaba - City of churches best known for it famous 5th century mosaic map.

& Herod's Castle ruins - John the Baptist is believed to have lost his head here. I stayed cool and thought it was just a really cool mountain top fortress.

So yeah, Jordan is neat... And religious too!

This is the site that major Christian churches have agreed is the site of Jesus' baptism. The ruins around it are part of the 5th century churches that were built around the area. The river has changed course dramatically in the last 2,000 years and it now runs about a thousand meters west of this picture.

Interestingly, this particle site wasn't found until 1998. Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty in 1994 and the whole area had to be de-mined before archeologist could look for this long hidden site. I am pretty convinced that this is where early Christians thought Jesus was baptized. Whether this is really the spot or not, who knows? But lots of people, including everyone's favorite Communist fighter (who isn't David Hasselhoff) Karol Wojtyla, think this is the place. So anyway it was neat... and I ate a really good lunch afterwards in Madaba.