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 Close
to the village of Faysaliyah seven kilometers west
of Madaba, Mount Nebo rises from the
Transjordanian plateau. It is bound on the east by
the Wadi Afrit (which extends into the Wadi
el-Kanisah) and the Wadi Judeideh further south
and on the north by the Wadi en-Naml and further
the Wadi Ayoun Mousa . It is flanked on the west
by the Jordan Valley
 Mount
Nebo's highest crest reaches an altitude of 800
meters above the surrounding Belqa plateau.. The
other peaks are slightly lower, all of them rising
from 700 meters. Of these, the two most important,
historically speaking are the peaks of Siyagha
(710m.) on the western side and the peak of el
Mukhayyat (790m.) on the S-E. All the year round
several streams flow down the sides of the
mountain: Ayoun Mousa and Ain Jemmaleh on the
north, Ain Judeideh, Kanisah and Ain Hery on the
south.
 Nebo
provides a unique natural balcony for a bird's-eye
view of the Holy Land and southern Jordan. If the
observer looks to the south, the panorama extends
over the Dead Sea and the Desert of Judah. Looking
to the west, it includes the Valley of the Jordan
with the mountains of Judea and Samaria, and more
to the north Jebel Osha and the southern slopes of
the Wadi Zerqa. The hills around Amman are plainly
visible to the observer in the distance, and on
the steep limits of the plateau Hesban and the
mountain of Mushaqar.
On very clear days the unaided eye
can pick out Bethlehem and not far from there the
singular cone that was Herod's fortress of
Herodium, the towers and buildings of Jerusalem
from the Mount of Olives all the way to Ramallah.
In the valley of the Jordan Qumran is easily
discerned by the side of the Dead Sea, then the
oasis of Jericho, Shunet Nimrin, the dams of the
Wadi Shueib and the Wadi Kafrein, Tell
er-Rameh-Livias, Tuleilat el Ghassul and Suweimeh.
On the edge of the plateau near Jebel Osha on the
hilly spurs of El Salt Iraq el-Amir is visible.
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