It has been said that on a clear day, you can see forever.
Forever means different things to different people. Here in Southern Alberta, "forever" means being surrounded by big sky and flat prairies that dance on the wind as far as the eye can see. There are endless straight roads carving through the flat land and the foothills that are breathtaking. Time seems to stand still as you drive down these roads with fields of wheat, canola, and corn on either side of you, until you're brought to the foothills which roll into a different kind of forever. The road is still endless, it simply ebbs and flows with the remarkable vista of ranchlands morphing into forests, climbing and climbing until you're surrounded by the embrace of the Rocky Mountains. Forever shifts up then, taller, majestic, and literally breathtaking as the air thins while you climb ever higher. On a clear day the colours change from golds and ambers to verdants and emeralds, to slate grey and silver and white.
Forever means different things to different people. In bibical times, forever meant wandering in a barren land for 40 years and staring into the Promised land. It meant punishment and longing. It meant an old man went up a mountain and died alone, staring at what he'd worked for but was banished from achieving, and eventually dying.
We couldn't see a lot, but from this spot you can see Jericho, the West Bank, and Jerusalem. On a clear day.
There is a Byzantine church at the top of the mountain. Inside this church are very well preserved mosaics that depict Byzantine customs, the history of the area, and the flora and fauna that used to be there.
These mosaics were created in the 5th century BCE. They were rediscovered starting in 1933 and were preserved by not being found for so long. The Byzatines were really good at making mosaics and when they were built over/buried by time, no one really thought more about them.
Atop the mountain is a sculpture called the Brazen Serpent.
Arguably representative of either caduceus or the rod of Asclepius. Either way it was built to stand as a visual of the serpent on a staff that Moses used to protect people from deadly plagues. Basically, it's a giant vaccine.
Mount Nebo stands out in Jordan as the custodians are Franciscan monks, not Jordanians. Monks from all over the world come to do monk things here and care for the lands. This is the first place I've ever seen a monk! He was taller and had more hair than I expected, and was using a cell phone. He was also a lot younger than I had expected. I didn't get a picture because it felt wrong (also I was drinking coffee which was a little more important to my addicted self).
Next: pedantic maps and a castle that could cause a riot.
