The Medeba of the Bible is today Madaba, ‘the City of Mosaics’, most famous for its spectacular Byzantine and Umayyad mosaics from the 5th to 7th centuries, which are scattered throughout the town’s homes and churches. Located just 19 miles (30km) south of Amman, Madaba is also home to the famous 6th-century mosaic map of the Holy Land, in which Jerusalem and its surrounding regions are depicted. One of the town’s most beautiful mosaics covers the floor of the Byzantine Church of the Apostles, and the Archaeological Park features an impressive collection of mosaic collages, where a series of ramps has been built over excavated mosaics to allow people to view them from above. Madaba is also known for its hand-woven carpets and tapestries and it is possible to see them being made in several shops around town.

Petra, where breath-taking architecture is carved into rose-colored sandstone cliffs, is a three-hour drive south of Amman, Jordan.

Accessible only through a narrow gorge, Petra was one of the most easy to defend cities of the ancient world. Its leaders became rich through trade, good water management and by exacting tolls from caravans. Petra's glory days were in the century before Christ's birth. When Rome annexed it in the second century, Petra had about 30,000 residents.