PHASGA (Heb. Pisgâh). — Nebo (v.), today Sijâgâh (Aramaic: “monastery”), consecrated to the memory of Moses’ vision. In the possession of the Custody of the Holy Land since 1933, it was the object of three excavation campaigns directed and documented by the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum of Jerusalem.
The following were discovered: a three-apsed building with large rough-hewn stones, which at the time of Egeria’s visit (v.) was being used as a church; a nave church seen by Peter the Iberian (5th cent.); a baptistery; a chapel of the Theotokos from the 6th and 7th centuries, together with a monastic complex (7th–8th centuries) that succeeded a hermit installation. The rooms have
mosaic pavements, among which the depiction of the Temple of Jerusalem set against a background is noteworthy. The small objects are Christian furnishings, with the exception of a small bronze statuette of seated Jupiter and eight Samaritan inscriptions. According to the Life of Peter the Iberian, the buildings were erected there following an apparition of Moses to a young shepherd from Nebo.