The shrine of the beheading of John the Baptist is located in the Latin Monastery in Madaba. The church is built on the hill area, where there was an old castle, whose roots go back to the ancient eras and civilizations that passed over the place from the Moabite civilization to the Roman and finally the Byzantine ones. Christian clans arrived in Madaba in 1880, and it was ruins of stones piled on top of each other, so they started building houses and a church that was named the Church of the Beheading of John the Baptist, due to its proximity to the place where John the Baptist was beheaded in Machaerus Castle.
Al-Tal area in Madaba is considered one of the oldest archaeological areas in it, and even represents the center of the old city. On this hill there was an ancient castle (Acropolis) on which the roots of its construction go back to the ancient eras and civilizations that passed over the place from the Moabite civilization to the Roman and finally the Byzantine, before a great earthquake struck the city in the year 746 AD, which turned the city into a heap of stones.
When the Christian clans arrived in the year 1880, accompanied by the Italian priest Alexander Makanio, to Khirbet Madaba, they were mounds of stones piled on each other. The priests worked to stabilize the Christian clans in Madaba, who in turn began to build their homes and churches, so that life in the city began again, after it was destroyed and lifeless.
The first church was built during the reign of the Italian priest Paolo (Paul) Bandoli in 1883, which was a modest building of stone and mud. Then, in 1892, the Italian priest Giuseppe (Joseph) Manfredi built a more modern two-room church, until he was able to obtain a Firman to build the current church in 1913, which is considered a unique masterpiece with its distinctive architecture.
The church was built on the archaeological hill of the city. Today, when visiting the church, the visitor can visit the church, which was named the Church of the Beheading of John the Baptist, due to its proximity to the place where John the Baptist was beheaded in Machaerus Castle. When going down the stairs that go to the bottom of the church, the visitor can see the remains of the old Byzantine castle, which was used as the basis for building the monastery and the church, which are columns and arches, where, after excavations in that area, a small piece of white mosaic was discovered, as well as a water channel. Paved and smooth stone floors, and parts of the old castle wall.
The place is rich in antiquities buried under the soil, which have not yet been discovered, and they need specialists and scientific excavation missions in order to excavate by modern scientific methods, in order to ensure the integrity of the ancient church and monastery building.