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Mount Nebo is just a few minutes to the west of Natasha's family's hometown of Madaba. Also called Pisgah, the Bible recounts Moses living out the latter part of his life there and tells of his first sighting of the Promised Land from its peaks, although he did not enter (Deuteronomy 34: 1-8).

There are actually two peaks on Mt. Nebo: Siyagha and al-Mukhayyat. During the sixth century CE, a Byzantine monastery was constructed at Siyagha on the foundations of an earlier chapel built by Egyptian monks during the third or fourth century CE. Although little is left of the buildings, period mosaics were preserved and can be seen inside the modern shrine on the peak.

Nebo provides a real bird's-eye view of the Holy Land and southern Jordan with a panorama that extends over the Dead Sea (the lowest point on earth), the Desert of Judah and the Jordan Valley to the west along with the mountains of Judea and Samaria and Jebel Osha and the southern slopes of the Wadi Zarqa to the north. Amman's seven hills are also clearly visible.

On a clear morning Beit Lahem, or Bethlehem, the cone remnant of Herod's fortress Herodium, towers and buildings of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives to Ramallah can all be seen. Also visible: the oasis of Jericho, Shunet Nimrin, Wadi Shueib and the Wadi Kafrein dams, Tell er-Rameh-Livias, Tuleilat el Ghassul and Suweimeh and the spurs of El Salt Iraq el-Amir's hills.Take me home!