Madaba Map

Madaba Map is a sixth-century Byzantine mosaic map preserved in the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint George in Madaba, Jordan. Dated to between 542 and 570 AD, it is the oldest surviving cartographic depiction of the Holy Land.

---

Description

The map originally measured about 21 by 7 metres and contained more than two million tesserae, depicting the eastern Mediterranean from Lebanon to the Nile Delta with Jerusalem at its centre and place names labelled in Greek. Roughly 16 by 5 metres survives. Its condition reflects a long history of damage: fire, moisture, construction work in the later church, and the earthquake that destroyed much of Madaba in 746. The surviving mosaic was uncovered during building work in 1884 and 1886, though its significance was not recognised until October 1896, and it was restored in 1965.

---

Biblical Connection

In a 2025 presentation on the Shiloh excavation, Scott Stripling notes that the map's surviving Byzantine Greek label for the site identifies it as the place where the Ark of the Covenant stayed, consistent with the biblical account of Shiloh's role prior to the Ark's capture by the Philistines (1 Samuel 4). This supports the traditional identification of the site with Tel Shiloh.