The Story Of The Land

Living Well Magazine Jordan – July 2013

On the outskirts of Madaba lies Mount Nebo, one of Jordan’s many treasured historic and religious landmarks. Today, only a short distance from the church at its peak, Nebo has become the home to La Storia, a museum and tourism complex that celebrates the region’s past by telling its stories in an original, innovative way. Muhanad Twal, an investor in the project, tells us more.

What kinds of historical exhibits can visitors expect to see at La Storia?

The idea behind the museum is to tell you the story of the land, from the Old Testament through to the era of the New Testament. It’s arranged in a big circle, where you walk through a winding path to see the exhibits, which are all sculptures with 3D backgrounds behind them. It starts with Noah’s Arc, where you see a huge boat with the animals. Then, you get to other parts of the Old Testament, like the destruction of Babylon and where Moses split the Red Sea. Then, the Christ era – where he was born, where he was baptized and the last supper. 

Next is Petra, as well as a glimpse of the traditional uniforms of the area’s different tribes. After that, the Islamic era is represented, and then the history of Jordan itself. From this point on, all of the sculptures are motorized. This part takes you into a different era; basically, it shows you what the Bedouin life was like. Then, the Great Arab Revolt is represented, and after that, the Hashemite section, which shows the army, its different rankings and the tools and weapons they used in that time.  Once you finish the historical part, you transition into a big traditional village.

Tell us about La Storia’s motorized village section.

It’s modeled to actually feel like a real village. You walk through it and see moving sculptures of all of the people doing the jobs of the old days: the potter, the barber, the blacksmith, everything. You walk through the narrow streets and the village’s alleyways and you live the life of Bilad al Sham. Everything is motorized, so you can walk into a café and find people smoking hookah and listening to music. You walk in the mosque and see children reading the Quran. There are glassblowers, someone baking, someone making rugs and carpets; all of these sculptures of people are life-sized. You move through a scene that is two or three stories high, with more people out above you on balconies. You are walking into the village as if they are living there now, with all the fine details. Our goal was to tell this story and to give you a snapshot of each part of the history, just to try to get you to live it or to see what people were doing at that time.

Besides the historical representations, what is there for people to see when visiting La Storia?

There’s a big observatory where you can see all the way to the Baptism Site and the West Bank. It’s a big paved area, around onedunom, and you can order a coffee from our cafeteria and just walk around there and enjoy it. We also have a live section of the museum, where you can find people making mosaics, carpets, and furniture, which you can buy. We focus on hiring local people who are disabled; we want to give the opportunity to anyone who is disabled and has a talent to work, while at the same displaying their crafts in our bazaar section.

Who are the people behind La Storia?

The two partners are two very dear and close childhood friends of mine, Samer Twal and Bashar Twal. They’ve been working on it for almost four years. They were tour guides at the beginning of their lives, so they’ve visited everywhere in Jordan and they know what interests tourists. One of the partners studied in Italy and some of the ideas were obtained from there. We had a lot of artists who worked on the project, whether on the sculptures, the decorations, the backgrounds, or the paintings. Most of the engineers were local, but really we had from all nationalities. I was approached as an investor and I really loved the idea.

At the launch of the museum on March 17, you also launched a future record-breaking mosaic mural project. How will that mural be created?

In an area of the museum, we’ve created a space where the biggest mosaic mural in the world is going to be created. It will depict the King’s Highway, taking you as though you’re driving from the most southern part to the most northern part of Jordan. It’s not a map; it’s more like a Google Map! As you drive along the King’s Highway, you pass all of the historic sites of Jordan, all of which will be depicted in the mosaics.

HRH Princess Sumaya put the first cornerstone, and it’s going to take about two to three million stones, and about two to three years, to be finished. All visitors to the museum will have the chance to participate and put a stone, and at the end, it will go in theGuinness Book of World Records as the largest mosaic and the one with the most participants in its creation. All proceeds raised in this project will go towards the preservation of Madaba’s heritage.

What does this museum aim to accomplish?

Madaba is a very important historic site, and La Storia is going to put focus on it again and on the tourism industry here. Also, it will employ a lot of locals and people of different skills. But, most importantly, it’s going to be a touristic attraction site for all the people visiting Jordan, giving them an idea about our way of living, historically and currently.