Everything is new – or is it? | Archaeology, mostly

Every time I return to Madaba, I am surprised at how much it has changed. There are so many new buildings, and it feels like no more empty lots exist.

*The new phone store with my name on it 🙂*

Some things are always the same: the sand and the dust everywhere, the yellow school buses and the wonderfully fragrant and beautiful flowers.

It is crazy to think about the first time I was here when there were Bedouin tents with their flocks and not so many buildings.

*still remember the tents although the view is much different now*

There is even a mall in Madaba. It looks so modern, and it feels strange and out of place. I still reminisce about tent-dwelling people and churches built here in the Byzantine era. Then at the end of the 19th century, a small town started to spread from the Acropolis.

*description of the residents back in the days*

Progress is inevitable, and I love all the good things it brings, but I also feel nostalgic. It is a problem for us historians. We can’t help to see the world for how it was. Although I try to live in the present moment to enjoy all the experiences, I am always at least partly imagining the past.

Madaba is still busy with tourists visiting its many churches and browsing the mosaics. No matter how often I have seen them, they still make me feel in awe.

*Madaba Mosaic Map – a section of the famous mosaic found in St. Georges’s church*

The art of mosaic making is still at large in Madaba. No wonder people call it the mosaic city. the title is earned by all the beautiful remains from the rich byzantine part when the city was the seat of a bishop. Today there are so many beautiful workshops where the artists produce excellent replicas of ancient mosaics as well as modern motives.