Queen Rania visits La Storia Museum in Madaba

Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah visited La StoriaMuseum in Mount Nebo in Madaba today and took part in adding a few small stonesto what aims to be the largest mosaic in the world, a project given the name the “King’s Way”.The mosaic project “King’s Way” aims to enter the Guinness World Records with theworld’s largest mosaic portrait that will, when finished, span over 180 squaremeters. The mosaic is a visual representation of the various cities peppered alongthe “King’s Way”, a path that starts at the south of the Kingdom in Aqaba and which then travels North to reach its end at Bosra Sham.Work on the mosaic started in March of 2013 and has since encouraged theparticipation of locals and tourists to contribute to the mosaic by adding smallstones to it. The mosaic will not only be the largest mosaic in the world, but thelargest collaborative art-work of its scale. It is approximated that, once completed,the mosaic will comprise of 3.5 million stones. It is estimated that 1 million pieceshave been placed by around 45,000 people so far.Her Majesty toured the museum which tells the story of the region represented bymechanically animated statues and models, and incorporates a mixture of religious and cultural heritage of Jordan and the region. The museum contains several modelsthat represent different historical periods, some of which portray aspects of ancientlife in villages and cities of the Kingdom and the Valley. On her tour, Queen Rania was accompanied by Mr. Samer Twal, Chairman of MadabaTourism Development and Heritage Preservation Association (MTA), Mr. Bashar Twal,Director and Co-Founder of La Storia Museum, and Mr. Munther Hamarneh, Directorof MTA.Her Majesty also had the opportunity to meet with board of trustees of MTA and wasbriefed on the association’s goals and plans for the future. During this meeting, HerMajesty explained how the presence of such local associations plays a crucial role inpromoting local tourism and helps in their development and creates jobopportunities for locals in the community.The museum also contains a special wing dedicated to handicraft training such asdecorating seashells, producing mosaics, wood sculpting, embroidery, and ostrich egg painting. Finished art products are put up for sale in a showroom that includesmany high quality art products. Madaba Tourism Development and Heritage Preservation Association (MTA) wasestablished in 2006 as a voluntary not-for-profit organization to promote tourismand economic growth in Madaba in line with the country’s National TourismStrategy.