From Jerusalem to Jericho:
The Wadi Kelt
As we leave Jerusalem and head eastward, we soon come upon the Judean Wilderness. This is a landscape that someone from the United States would most likely describe as "desert." However, that is not an accurate description. The Judean Wilderness is very much alive. There is little vegetation during the hot, dry summers. However, with the arrival of the winter rains, this barren landscape turns green with plant life.
Shepherds are able to graze flocks here during the winter, However, they must be skilled to know where to find the grazing produced by the rains and to avoid dangerous cliffs and passes.
There is a particularly deep gorge in the Judean Wilderness that runs from Jerusalem down to Jericho called the Wadi Kelt. A wadi is a dry river bed that can gush with water during the rainy winter season. The Wadi Kelt is very deep with sharp, steep turns and cliffs. Such a deep and ominous valley would be the setting of Psalm 23 in referring to the "valley of the shadow of death."
Found amid this breath-taking landscape is St. George's Greek Orthodox monastery, one of the oldest Christian monasteries in the Holy Land. The earliest monastic community here dates to about 420 CE. Monks still live here in a solitary existence.
From St. George's, we can hike the Wadi Kelt all the way to Jericho. This hike, with its sharp turns and endless places where robbers could hide, is the setting for Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan. (Luke 10:29-37)
Come, let's walk to Jericho.
One can see why a walk along this path could lead to the image "the valley of the shadow of death."
After an extended walk, the oasis of Jericho comes into view between the steep cliffs of Wadi Kelt.
One of the first things encountered upon exiting Wadi Kelt is the remains of one of the many palaces of King Herod. This was the place Herod often came in the winter for solitude. It was here that he died before being buried at the Herodium.
The area of Wadi Kelt is the traditional place where Jesus was tempted for forty days by Satan. (Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, Luke 4:1-13)
There is a Greek Orthodox monastery on the mountain peak in the center of the photo below that commemorates these events. This peak has come to be know as the "Mount of Temptation."
Jericho is an oasis in the Judean Wilderness. The landscape is almost tropical as it sits alongside the barren cliffs of Wadi Kelt.
However, this is not the only feature that makes Jericho unique. It is also the lowest and oldest city in the world. Jericho sits at approximately 1300 feet below sea level. Pictured below is a Neolithic tower that dates to approximately 8000 BCE. Some believe that it is the oldest extant human structure in the entire world.
Jericho is also the first city entered by the Hebrews after the Exodus from Egypt. (Joshua 4-6)
At Jericho, we are just to the north of the Dead Sea. Therefore, we will now head south and visit several sites along the Dead Sea: Qumran, Ein Gedi, and Masada.