In the arid heart of the Jordanian plateau, where stone and sunlight converge in a stark and enduring landscape, a 1986 archaeological discovery brought to light one of the most remarkable Byzantine-era mosaics ever found in the region. Hidden for centuries beneath the ruins of a church at Umm ar-Rasas—ancient Kastron Mefaa—an immense floor mosaic was unearthed by Franciscan archaeologist Michele Piccirillo and his team.
It belonged to the Church of Saint Stephen and would prove to be not only a masterpiece of late antique art, but also the second most significant geographic mosaic of the Byzantine world after the renowned Madaba Map.
The mosaic revealed a stratified history. The visible floor, dated to 785 CE, overlays an earlier mosaic from 587 CE, which belonged to a previous church constructed during the episcopate of Bishop Sergius. This superimposition carries both archaeological and historical significance: it evidences the sustained Christian presence in the region beyond the 7th-century Islamic conquests and demonstrates a cultural continuity adapted to changing political and religious contexts.
The upper mosaic was crafted by six Christian artists—Staurachios, Euremios, Elias, Constantinus, Germanus, and Abdela—whose names are inscribed within the work. Created during the Abbasid Caliphate, the Church of Saint Stephen, along with fifteen other ecclesiastical buildings in Umm ar-Rasas, was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2004 for its outstanding universal value.
The Umm ar-Rasas mosaic can be viewed as a companion—if not a successor—to the famous 6th-century Madaba Map. While the Madaba mosaic centers on the urban and sacred geography of the Holy Land, with a focus on Jerusalem and its environs, the mosaic of Saint Stephen offers a broader cartographic vision. It depicts cities from across Palestine and Transjordan, and extends westward to include the Nile Delta.
(St Stephan's church at Umm ar-Rasas)
Both mosaics share a visual lexicon of Greek inscriptions and stylized architectural renderings. However, the mosaic at Umm ar-Rasas stands out for its scale—spanning over 500 square meters—and its decorative complexity. Together, these two mosaics form a unique cartographic corpus, reflecting the geographic imagination of Eastern Christianity between the 6th and 8th centuries CE.
The design of the Saint Stephen mosaic is organized into three narrative registers. The central panel depicts a lively riverine landscape—likely inspired by the Nile—with scenes of fishing and hunting, interspersed with figures, birds, fish, and plant motifs. Surrounding this are the mosaic’s margins, which chart a sacred geography with meticulous attention to both symbolic and spatial order.
The northern band presents eight cities from historic Palestine: Hagia Polis (Jerusalem), Nablus, Sebastia, Caesarea, Lydda, Eleutheropolis, Ashkelon, and Gaza. To the south, seven Transjordanian cities are depicted, including Kastron Mefaa (Umm ar-Rasas), Philadelphia (Amman), Madaba, Heshbon, Ma'in, Rabba, and al-Karak. Two additional towns, Limbon and Diblathon, appear at the beginning of the aisles.
The innermost frame features ten cities of the Nile Delta, among them Alexandria, Kasin, Tamiathis, Pelusium, and Heracleion. This broad geographic reach reflects the integrative worldview of the mosaic’s patrons, which mapped diverse regions of the Byzantine realm into a single, symbolically charged image.
(Photo credit: Professor Bjorn Anderson - Public Domain, Wikipedia)
The date of the mosaic—785 CE—marks its production during a period of Islamic rule. That such an extensive Christian artwork was commissioned, executed, and preserved under Abbasid sovereignty suggests a complex dynamic of coexistence and cultural negotiation. It is a rare example of Christian monumental art produced in an Islamic polity, and its survival hints at local patterns of religious tolerance and continuity.
The mosaic also affirms the resilience of monastic life in the region. At Umm ar-Rasas, ascetic traditions left their mark in the form of a square stone tower associated with stylite monks—hermits who lived in seclusion atop columns or towers.
Much of ancient Umm ar-Rasas remains unexcavated, though it has yielded extensive remains from the Roman, Byzantine, and early Islamic periods. In addition to Saint Stephen’s Church, at least sixteen other churches with mosaic pavements have been identified on the site. These mosaics vary in theme—some geometric, others depicting fauna or pastoral scenes—offering a glimpse into the aesthetic diversity of the region’s Christian communities.
The surrounding terrain bears signs of historic agriculture: terracing, water channels, and cisterns reveal a once-active community able to thrive in an arid environment. The stylite tower, a unique feature in the Near East, adds a distinctive architectural dimension to the site’s monastic history.
The significance of the Umm ar-Rasas mosaic lies not only in its artistry but also in its function as a visual document—an eighth-century representation of space, belief, and identity expressed through the tessellated stone. Recognized by UNESCO for its artistic ingenuity, monastic architecture, and testimony to monotheistic traditions in the region, the site speaks to a world that once was—and to ongoing efforts to protect its legacy.
Yet the mosaic’s survival remains precarious. Environmental exposure, unregulated tourism, and development pressures pose ongoing threats. Conservation initiatives, supported by international partners and local communities, aim to safeguard the site’s integrity for future generations.
Today, standing before the mosaic of Saint Stephen is to encounter a vision of space shaped by history, art, and human movement. Like the Madaba Map, the mosaic at Umm ar-Rasas offers not a theological roadmap but a cultural cartography—one that reflects the interplay between place, memory, and imagination across centuries.