Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
St George's
Monastery
1
Road map
C3. Route 1, 27 km
(17 miles) E of Jerusalem.
Tel
(050)
l
259 949.
@
from Jerusalem.
#
8-11am & 3-5pm Sun-Fri;
8-11am Sat.
One of the finest hikes in
the region is rewarded by
the spectacle of St George's
Monastery, an ancient retreat
hollowed out of the sheer
rock wall of a deep and
narrow gorge. The monastery
was founded in AD 480
around a cluster of caves
where, according to tradition,
St Joachim learned from an
angel that Anne, his sterile
wife and mother-to-be of the
Virgin Mary, had conceived.
In AD 614 invading Persians
massacred the monks and
destroyed the monastery.
It was partially reoccupied by
the Crusaders in the Middle
Ages but only fully restored
at the end of the 19th
century. Some attractive 6th-
century mosaics remain, and
there is a Crusader-era church
with a shrine containing the
skulls of the martyred monks.
The monastery can be
reached in 20 minutes on foot
via a signposted track off the
old Jerusalem-Jericho road.
From a starting point on the
modern road hikers can take
a more scenic path to the
monastery along the full
length of the Wadi Qelt gorge.
Jericho, regarded as perhaps the world's oldest city
Jericho
2
Road map
C3.
*
17,000.
@
or
taxi from Jerusalem.
(
daily.
_
Jericho Festival (Feb).
It is best to check with the
authorities first before visiting
the city to make sure it is safe
for tourists as unrest has
returned to the region.
Claimed to be the world's
oldest city and with rich
biblical associations, Jericho
lies just a few miles
north of the Dead
Sea, 258 m (846
ft) below sea
level, in the
middle of the
Judaean desert. It
owes its existence
to the Ain es-
Sultan spring (the
biblical Elisha's
Spring), the same
one that, 10,000 years ago
in the late Mesolithic period,
attracted a semi-nomadic
population of hunter-
gatherers to first settle here.
According to the Bible,
Jericho was the first town
captured by the Israelites
under the leadership of
Joshua. The Book of Joshua
tells how, in order to possess
the land promised to them by
God, the Israelites brought
down the city walls with a
tremendous shout and a
trumpet blast (Joshua 6).
During Roman times Mark
Antony made a gift of the
oasis town to Cleopatra of
Egypt, who, in turn, leased
the place to Herod the Great.
Being at a lower altitude than
Jerusalem, Jericho is notably
warmer, and Herod wintered
in a palace here, as had the
Hasmonean rulers before him.
The Bible's New Testament
mentions several visits to
Jericho by Jesus, who healed
two blind men and lodged at
the home of the tax collector
Zacchaeus (Luke 19: 1-10).
Near the centre of town
there is still the centuries-
old sycamore tree up which
Zacchaeus was said to have
climbed in order to see Jesus.
Repeated Bedouin raids
led to the decline of
Jericho around the
12th century, and
it wasn't until the
1920s that the
town's former
irrigation
network was
restored and the
area was brought
to bloom again.
In 1948, the town
took in more than 70,000
Palestinian refugees. The
camps have since gone, and
Jericho is now administered
by the the Palestinian
National Authority.
Other attractions include
Te l Jericho
(also known
as Tell es-Sultan), the sun-
baked earthen mound that
represents something like
10,000 years of continuous
settlement. Most striking of
all is a large stone tower with
great thick walls that dates
back as far as 7,000 BC.
A cable car service connects
A
Tell es-Sultan with the Greek
Orthodox
Monastery of the
Temptation
2 km (1 mile) to
the north. Like St George's in
Wadi Qelt, this holy retreat
has a spectacular location,
perched high up on a cliff
Islamic-era mosaic from
Hisham's Palace
St George's Monastery, built into
the cliff face of Wadi Qelt
For hotels and restaurants in this region see pp261-2 and pp278-9
