Madaba is the town of mosaics, and the reason is a floor. In the Church of St George, a nineteenth-century Greek Orthodox building, lies a sixth-century Byzantine mosaic map of the Holy Land, made from some two million tiny stones, which shows Jerusalem, the Nile delta and the Dead Sea with astonishing detail. It came to light again in 1884 when the church was being built, and it remains the oldest known cartographic depiction of the region. Other churches and houses in town contain fine mosaics too, and a small archaeological park displays some of the best, so you can easily spend a morning looking at the floors.
The town sits on a plateau at roughly 780 metres, on the ancient Kings Highway, which in the Bible is the road the Israelites asked permission to use on their way to the Promised Land. It was an old trade route between Egypt and Syria, and Madaba had a significant Christian population from early times, which still makes up a notable minority in the town. A few kilometres to the northwest rises Mount Nebo, where Moses is said to have looked out over the land he would not enter, with a view across the Jordan valley to the Dead Sea on a clear day.
Riding in Jordan is easy and varied, but different from Europe. In Madaba the streets are busy, with minibuses, taxis and pedestrians weaving through, and speed bumps appear without warning. Once you leave town on the Kings Highway, the road runs south across a high, open plateau of wheat fields and olive groves, with sudden, dramatic plunges into the canyons, such as the Wadi Mujib, where the road drops hundreds of metres in long switchbacks. Police checkpoints are common and polite, and a passport and bike papers should be on hand. Summer afternoons can be fiercely hot, and spring brings wildflowers and cooler air.
Madaba is a town of about eighty thousand, with fuel stations, bakeries and many places to eat. Order a plate of hummus, grilled meat and fresh bread, and finish with sweet tea or Arabic coffee. The old town's small family-run restaurants are friendly. It is a good place to stock up on water and snacks before the long run south along the Kings Highway, because services between the larger towns can be sparse.