Umm ar-Rasas (Arabic: أم الرّصاص; ancient name: Kastron Mefa'a) is located 30 km southeast of Madaba in the Amman Governorate in central Jordan.

The Franciscan academic society in Jerusalem, Studium Biblicum Franciscanum (SBF),[2] carried out excavations at the north end of the site in 1986, but much of the area remains buried under debris.

[4] Many branches of the King's Highway provided a means for reaching the more remote ancient cities, but the main route served as the forerunner for the Via Traiana Nova built by the Roman Emperor Trajan (53-117 A.D.).

[6] Also, the excavation of a Byzantine church here exposed an inscription naming the area as "Castron Mephaa" further supporting the theory that Umm-ar Rasas and the biblical Mephaat are one and the same.

By the 4th century C.E., the advent of pilgrimage caused Palestine to become the nucleus of the Christian world, and scores of pious men and women traversed the desert seeking sites of scriptural significance as well as communion with their creator.

[11] Absent from the mosaics at Umm ar-Rasas are portrayals of principal holy places revered by pilgrims such as Bethlehem, Hebron or Nazareth unlike the Madaba Map found nearby.

[13] Ornamented with carved Christian symbols on all four sides, the square pillar endures in the distance as evidence of the once flourishing community established in the Byzantine era as a center for spiritual enlightenment.