Mount Nebo
הַר נְבוֹ
Where is Mount Nebo? Siyagha ridge, west of Madaba, in Jordan, about 45 km east of Jerusalem. I mark it very likely.
At the end of forty years Moses climbed this ridge, and G-d showed him the whole land he would never enter. He died there, and no one knows where he is buried.
By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker
- Site today
- Siyagha ridge, west of Madaba, in Jordan
- How sure
- Very likely Strong evidence, with no serious rival.
- Other names
- Har Nevo, Jebel Neba, Jabal Nibu, Ras Siyagha, Pisgah
- Location
- 31.7678° N, 35.7253° E (Google Maps)
How we know where it was
The Torah gives directions. Nebo is "in the land of Moab, facing Jericho." Moses goes up to it from the plains of Moab, where the people are camped, to "the top of Pisgah, which faces Jericho." So we want a height on the Moabite side, straight across from Jericho, climbed from the camp below.
The Siyagha ridge is exactly that. It juts out from the edge of the Moabite plateau toward the Jordan Valley, directly opposite Jericho. On a clear day much of the land west of the Jordan lies in view. Jericho sits below, the Dead Sea spreads to the south, and on the best days you can make out Jerusalem. The farther reaches, as far north as Dan, G-d showed him.
The name survives in Arabic as Jebel Neba. The tradition is old and unbroken. The pilgrim Egeria visited a church honoring Moses here around 394 CE, and excavators uncovered that Byzantine church and its monastery on the summit.
What stays uncertain is which point on the ridge is "the top of Pisgah." The mountain itself is not in doubt.
Visiting today
In Jordan, the Memorial Church of Moses with its Byzantine mosaics, a bronze serpent sculpture and a lookout over the Dead Sea and Jericho.
Read it in the Bible
Verse numbers follow the Hebrew Bible. In a handful of chapters English Bibles count one verse off.
See Nebo on the interactive map →
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Get the print + free ebookNearby places
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