Tall Hisban Highlights
View Madaba, Mt. Nebo, the Jordan Valley, and the plains of Moab. On a clear day, see the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
Experience a typical archaeological tall.
Enter a residential cave complete with Roman arches, columns and cisterns.
See the east wall of a massive Iron Age water reservoir.
See the northeast corner tower of the Ammonite citadel in Hisban. Follow the perimeter walls of what may have been a Hellenistic farm estate.
Get an idea of what a small-town Roman stairway and acropolis might have looked like.
Other highlights include:
- Spy the remains of the north wall of a Roman public building, likely a temple
- Walk inside the nave of a typical small town Byzantine basilica
- Inspect the anteroom, steam room and hot-water oven of a small Early Islamic bath
- Tour the official residence of a Mamluk appointed governor of this region
- View the remains of an Ottoman cave village along the slope of Wadi Majaar
- Get an idea of the process of settlement of the present-day village of Hisban
- Contemplate biblical stories linked to this site (Num 21:21-31; Songs 7:4)
- Try to figure out what additions Herod the Great made to this summit
- Try to figure out the path of the Via Nova Traiana which included Esbous (Roman Hisban) as a way-station;
- Picture what a worship service might have been like in the Byzantine basilica;
- Imagine what it would be like to take a steam bath in the Early Islamic hammam;
- Envision where Saladin might have camped during his visit to this site;
- Visualize Mamluk horsemen sallying forth from Hisban to fight the Crusaders;
- Think about the succession of imperial world-making projects in this area by the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Umayyads, Abbasids, Seljuks, Ayyubids, Mamluks, Ottomans, and British.