Although damaged in places, the Madaba Map's colored fragments depict sites across the Holy Land, including Jerusalem, in dazzling detail (Subscriber Exclusive)
Tensions between Muslims and Christians in the 1880s in what is today Jordan led to a compromise. The Christians could relocate to a town named Madaba on the condition they could only build churches on sites where churches had once stood before. The proposal had a certain logic, for although Madaba by this time was a dusty, obscure outpost in theIn 1884 the newly settled Greek Orthodox Christians wanted to build a new Church of St. George over its former site.
Locals were excited, but the discovery was slow to attract the attention of the Greek Orthodox Christian authorities in Jerusalem, which was then under Ottoman rule. It was not until a decade later in the mid-1890s that the librarian of the Jerusalem patriarchate, Kleopas Koikylides, visited Madaba to inspect the find. He realized straightaway the importance of the artwork. Mosaics adorning the floors of Byzantine churches generally represented cities and monuments in a pictorial sense.
Several other churches across the Holy Land can also be identified thanks to the high level of artistic detail. Many of these monuments are mentioned in documents about the Holy Land written around this time, which could have been a source for the mosaic-makers. One source could have been an account written around 570 by an Italian pilgrim to the Holy Land.Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.
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