The Madaba Map

Mid-20th century reproduction of one of the oldest mosaic maps in the world.

Consisting of over two million individually laid tiles and measuring approximately 70 x 23 feet, the Madaba map is the world’s oldest mosaic floor map and one of the earliest depictions of the Holy Land. The image, oriented with east at the top, shows a large region stretching from Lebanon to Egypt and from the Mediterranean to deserts in the east. It was constructed during the 6th century C.E. to adorn the floor of a Byzantine church in Madaba, Jordan, then part of the powerful Eastern Roman.

While only about a quarter of the original map survives today, it offers an incredible glimpse into early Christian beliefs and spatial symbolism. Jerusalem (emphasizing the Chuch of the Holy Sepulchre), the Jordan Valley, and the Dead Sea are all oversized and exaggerated in their relative importance. There are depictions of fish in the uninhabitable body of water, likely a reflection of contemporary religious ideas. According to a popular archaeology blog;

“The map may partially have served to facilitate pilgrims’ orientation in the Holy Land. All landscape units are labelled with explanations in Greek. The mosaic’s references to the tribes of Israel, toponymy, as well as its use of quotations of biblical passages, indicate that the artist who laid out the mosaic used as his primary source the Onomasticon of Eusebius (4th-century CE). A combination of folding perspective and aerial view depicts about 150 towns and villages, all of them labelled.”

This particular depiction of the Madaba map was first illustrated by Paul Palmer, an architect in Jerusalem, in 1901. Together with Hermann Guthe, the pair issued Die Mosaikkarte von Madeba, published in Leipzig by Baedeker in 1906. That volume is the source of this image, which was reproduced in 1954 by the Survey of Israel & the Israel Exploration Society.

Sources: The Archaeologist; Universes in Universe; Medievalists.net; Macro-Typography;