Khirbat al-Mukhayyaṭ; Khirbet el-Muhatta; Khirbet el-Mekhayyat Complete

Description

Khirbat al-Mukhayyaṭ—also written Khirbet el-Muhatta or Khirbet el-Mekhayyat—and often identified with the “town of Nebo,” is a village located roughly 3.5 km from Mount Nebo. Among the architectural remains are four churches notable for their mosaics and dedicatory texts, alongside secular features such as a city wall, domestic structures, cisterns, and burial installations. The churches are: - Church of St. George, with six inscriptions - Church of SS. Lot and Procopius, with three inscriptions - Church of the priest John, with three inscriptions - Church of Amos and Closes, with two inscriptions Modern scholarly attention began in 1863, when Félicien de Saulcy first recorded the site. Subsequent investigation was undertaken by the Franciscans, and formal excavations were carried out from 1995 to 1997 under Anne Michel on behalf of the Franciscan Archaeological Institute. A site plan can be consulted at: https://web.archive.org/web/20111122032337/http://www.jordanjubilee.com/visitjor/mtnebo.htm Further reading: Hoyland, R. 2010. Mount Nebo, Jabal Ramm, and the status of Christian Palestinian Aramaic and Old Arabic in Late Roman Palestine and Arabia, in: M.C.A. Macdonald (ed.), The development of Arabic as written language, Oxford, 29–46. Knauf, A. 1984. Bemerkungen zur frühen Geschichte der arabischen Orthographie, Orientalia 53, 456–458. Michel, A. 2001. Les églises d’époque byzantine et umayyade de Jordanie (provinces d’Arabie et de Palestine), Ve–VIIIe siècle: typologie architecturale et aménagements liturgiques (avec catalogue des monuments; préface de Noël Duval; premessa di Michele Piccirillo), Turnhout. Milik, J.T. 1959–1960. Notes d’épigraphie et de topographie jordaniennes, Liber Annuus 10, 145–184. Puech, E. 1984. L’inscription christo-palestinienne d’Ayoun Mousa (Mount Nebo), Liber Annuus 34, 319–328. Saller, S.J., & Bagatti, B. 1949. The Town of Nebo (Khirbet el-Mekhayyat): with a brief survey of other Christian monuments in Transjordan. (Publications of the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum, 7), Jerusalem.