Jordan: Umm ar-Rasas Archeological Site
Another one of Jordan’s UNESCO World Heritage sites – Umm ar-Rasas, south of Jordan and east from Madaba. Somehow, it’s hardly visited by tourists, and we were the only two people at the entire massive archaeological site. This is actually the Biblical settlement of Mephaat, originally built as a Roman military outpost during the Emperor Trajan in around 100AD along the King’s Highway. Over the next centuries, it become a Byzantine, then Christian and later an Islamic community. The site is massive and really only began to to get excavated in 1990s, so mounds and mounds of the city are completely unearthed. The are remnants of many buildings with arches, and many floors have mosaics, some still covered with sand. There are multiple churches here, with only a couple fully excavated and explored. One of them – the Byzantine Church of St Stephen
