Where did Moses die?

Question

Accepted Answer

On Mount Nebo in the land of Moab, east of the Jordan, opposite Jericho. The traditional summit is Siyagha, about 700 m high, in today's Jordan about 9 km north-west of Madaba; it lies about 29 km east of Jericho and 46 km from Jerusalem in a straight line, and the northern end of the Dead Sea is about 15 km to the west, more than a kilometre below. The map puts Mount Nebo and the top of Pisgah at this point; a second peak, Khirbet al-Mukhayyat, 3 km to the south-east, is usually taken for the town of Nebo of Numbers and of the Mesha Stele. Where Moses was buried is a different question, and the Bible says that no one knows. Deuteronomy tells it in a few lines: “And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the LORD shewed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan”; “So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD. And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Beth-peor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.” God had told him: “Get thee up into this mountain Abarim, unto mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho; and behold the land of Canaan”. Beth-peor is placed on the map at Khirbet Ayun Musa, the springs of Moses in the valley north-east of the summit. From Siyagha one sees the Jordan valley, Jericho, the Dead Sea and the hills of Judah, though not the Mediterranean that Deuteronomy names. Josephus says that a cloud came over Moses as he spoke with Eleazar and Joshua, and he vanished from sight, lest anyone should say that he had gone to God. The pilgrim Egeria climbed Nebo in the early 380s and was shown the place by the monks who lived there; a church of the fourth century grew into a Byzantine basilica with mosaic floors, one of them dated 530/531. The Franciscans excavated the site from 1933 under Sylvester Saller, and Michele Piccirillo continued the work; the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land keeps the Memorial of Moses there today; Pope John Paul II prayed there in March 2000, and the basilica, restored under a new roof, reopened in 2016. In 2 Maccabees, Mount Nebo is the mountain where Jeremiah hid the ark.