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Barren terrain around the excavated Biblical city of Dibon, in central Jordan. Adjoining the ancient tell, the modern Jordanian village of Dhiban (background) preserves the site’s ancient Biblical name.

The books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Numbers, Joshua, Judges and Samuel all mention Dibon. When the Moabite Stone was discovered here in 1868, the site’s Biblical identity became certain and its heritage enriched by the history related on the inscribed stone. Here in Dibon (Dhiban) in the ninth century B.C., Mesha, king of Moab, went to war against the Israelites and conquered their city.