South of Madaba

The Kings’ Highway from Madaba to Karak chugs over plateaus and wadis. Forty km south of Madaba the road descends into the vast Wadi Mujib, 4km wide and 1100m deep. On one escarpment lies the Biblical Dhiban where the Mesha Stele was found in 1868. (The original tablet, engraved by King Mesha with the earliest Hebrew script found up to that time, now resides in the Louvre. Copies may be seen in both the Karak and Madaba Museums.) An ancient Roman mile marker is on the road approaching the modern town of Dhiban and the wondrous Wadi Mujib unfurls after the town disappears from view.

Few buses run direcdy from Madaba to Karak along the highway. The easiest way to go is to hitch or catch a minibus to Al-Qasr, which features a ruined Roman temple (c. 350 AD) and a bus to Karak (200fils).