Amateur archaeologists will like Tell Hesban, 9km north of Madaba. Over the centuries this strategic hill has been a Bronze Age settlement, an Amorite capital (900–500 BC), a Hellenistic fortress (198–63 BC), a Roman settlement called Esbus (63 BC–AD 350), a Byzantine ecclesiastical centre (AD 350–650), an Umayyad market town (650–750), a regional capital of the Abbasids (750–1260) and Mamluks (1260–1500) and, finally, an Ottoman village. All these layers of history are on view, albeit faintly.
The site is well signed, indicating the remains of a Byzantine church (the mosaics are displayed in Madaba), a Roman temple and a Hellenistic fort. There are lots of caves and cisterns both here and in neighbouring Wadi Majar. The largest Bronze Age cave can be explored with a torch (flashlight). Minibuses run frequently from Madaba (300 fils, 20 minutes) to Hesban or otherwise take a taxi for JD6. Coming from Madaba, the tell is on the left side of the road; if you are driving, turn left at the first set of traffic lights after the pedestrian bridge in the modern town of Hesban and follow your nose up the hill.
