Patriarch of Bulgaria visits historic Madaba Mosaic during pilgrimage to Jordan (PHOTOS+VIDEOS)

Patriarch Daniel of Bulgaria received a ceremonial welcome in Madaba, Jordan, during his first irenic visit to the Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Accompanied by Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem and Archbishop Christophoros of Kyriakoupolis, the Bulgarian Patriarch visited the historic Church of Saint George, home to the famous sixth-century Madaba Mosaic Map.

The Bulgarian ecclesiastical delegation was welcomed with music and hymns in Madaba, a city known in the Old Testament as Medeba (Joshua 13:9).

The visit included an opportunity to view the renowned Madaba Mosaic Map, created around AD 565 as part of the floor decoration of a Byzantine church.

Considered the oldest surviving geographical map of the Holy Land, the mosaic depicts dozens of cities, settlements, rivers and sacred sites across Palestine, Transjordan, Egypt and southern Syria, identified by Greek inscriptions.

Jerusalem occupies a central position on the map, with a particularly detailed representation of the Byzantine city, including its walls, streets and major Christian churches.

The mosaic was rediscovered in 1884, when the local Orthodox community was preparing to construct the present Church of…