Moses Memorial Church on Mount Nebo

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Baptistery

The Moses Memorial Church on Mount Nebo was a Byzantine pilgrimage center on the summit of Rās es-Siyāġa in present-day Jordan . From this place, according to biblical tradition , Moses was allowed to see the promised land before his death , which he himself could no longer enter ( Deut 34: 1-4  LUT ). Eusebius of Caesarea mentioned the place in his Onomasticon .

Byzantine architecture

4th century AD church

Amphora between birds

Around the year 350 Christian monks converted a pagan ceremonial tomb on the top of the mountain into a Christian church. The Roman mausoleum was a three- icon building ( cella trichora ) with six graves carved into the rock. One of them was highlighted and was in the middle of the complex.

The middle apse received a synthronon with a large mosaic field during the renovation . The mosaic depicted an amphora flanked by two birds. Separate picture fields with smaller birds filled the rest of the floor. A donor inscription mentions the name Alexios, presumably this was the abbot. The narthex was inlaid with a mosaic of white tesserae and opened up a chapel for the dead on each side. There was a courtyard to the west of the church, and remains of the monastery buildings were found in the south of the area.

6th century AD church

Mosaic carpet, in the background the cross-shaped baptismal font
Round, clover-leaf-shaped baptismal font

In the early 6th century the complex was expanded to include a baptistery or diakonicon .

In the north inner courtyard a stone basin was created for the immersion baptism with a cross-shaped floor plan. From three sides you could descend via steps into the pool, on the fourth side you can see a small semicircular tub which, according to the excavators, could have been used for the baptism of young children.

A 5 × 5.5 m mosaic carpet was an eye-catcher in the middle of the baptistery. Inscriptions name the date of completion (August 531 AD), the incumbent Roman consuls Lampadius and Orestes, the commissioners (the bishop Elias of Madaba and the abbot Elias) and the mosaicists Soelos, Kaiomos and Elias. The mosaic consists of four picture strips:

  1. A shepherd protects a zebu from the attack of a lion, a soldier in a Phrygian cap fights a lioness.
  2. Bear and boar hunt on horseback and with dogs
  3. Pastoral scene
  4. Wild animals are shown: an African leads an ostrich and a Phrygian leads a zebra and a spotted dromedary.

At the end of the 6th century, an earthquake damaged the facility, making renovations necessary. In the course of this construction work, a three-aisled church was added to the previous church space; the construction of the 4th century thus became the presbytery of the new church. The church interior was flanked by side rooms in the south and north. The mosaic floor of the new building shows a surrounding vine and a swastika motif.

The northern side building now served as a Diakonikon, the side building on the south side as a baptistery. This is also remarkable due to its design. The baptismal font has the shape of a clover, is edged around and surrounded by a mosaic with birds, flowers and grapes. The rectangular area in front of it was decorated with a floor mosaic depicting gazelles between trees.

Later modifications

Theotokos Chapel

Mount Nebo was an important Christian pilgrimage destination until the 9th century.

The building complex from the late 6th century was expanded in the 7th century to include a chapel of Our Lady ( Theotokos ). The presbytery of this chapel received a mosaic floor, which represents an altar between two bulls, according to the inscription ( Ps 51,21  LUT ) this is the stylized Jerusalem temple .

The monastery complex included several inner courtyards, two cisterns, a refectory , a kitchen and a storage room.

Ancient pilgrimage visits

The pilgrim Egeria described how she undertook the strenuous ascent to the summit of Nebo at the end of the 4th century. Above she visited the "not very big church". She followed how Moses had a wide view of the Promised Land from here.

Peter the Iberian , later Bishop of Gaza- Maiuma, climbed Mount Nebo around a hundred years after Egeria and found the same church that Egeria had seen. The monks told him that, according to the Bible, the place where Moses was buried was unknown, but a vision had revealed to a shepherd that the tomb of Moses was at the place where the church had now been built.

Excavations

Honoré Théodoric d'Albert de Luynes climbed the Rās es-Siyāġa as the first modern European in 1864 and found a field of ruins on the summit, which he identified as the Memorial Church of Moses. In 1932, the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum bought the site, as did the Ḥirbet el-Muḫayit hill three kilometers to the south -east (Byzantine town of Nebo with Lot memorial church). A modern Franciscan monastery was built on the Nebo for the participants in the archaeological mission. It belongs to the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land .

In the years 1933 to 1937, 1963 to 1967 and since 1976 the Franciscan Biblical Institute carried out systematic excavations in both places.

Franciscan basilica

  • East facade before the renovation

  • East facade after the renovation

  • Interior before the renovation

  • Interior after the renovation

A modern Roman Catholic basilica designed to protect both the Byzantine ruins and the mosaics was built in the 1960s. After extensive renovations, the newly designed Moses Memorial Church has been open to the public again since October 2016.

literature

  • Dieter Vieweger: When stones talk. Archeology in Palestine. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004. ISBN 3-525-53623-2 . Pp. 347-355.
  • Dirk Kinet: Jordan (Kohlhammer art and travel guide). Kohlhammer, Stuttgart / Berlin / Cologne 1992. ISBN 3-17-010807-7 . Pp. 90-96.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Dieter Vieweger: When stones speak. Archeology in Palestine . S. 350 .
  2. ↑ Dirk Kinet: Jordan . S. 91 .
  3. ↑ Dieter Vieweger: When stones talk. Archeology in Palestine . S. 351 .
  4. ↑ Dieter Vieweger: When stones talk. Archeology in Palestine . S. 350-351 .
  5. ↑ Dirk Kinet: Jordan . S. 95 .
  6. ↑ Dieter Vieweger: When stones talk. Archeology in Palestine . S. 353 .
  7. ↑ a b Dieter Vieweger: When stones speak. Archeology in Palestine . S. 349 .
  8. ↑ Dirk Kinet: Jordan . S. 96 .
  9. ↑ REOPENING OF THE MEMORIAL OF MOSES ON MOUNT NEBO October 15 - civil inauguration, October 16 - religious ceremony Concerts, guided tours and cultural activities to celebrate the event. In: Custodia Terrae Sanctae. Retrieved October 3, 2018 .

Coordinates: 31 ° 46 ′ 4.8 "  N , 35 ° 43 ′ 32.2"  E