Jericho & Bethany

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Bedouin camp above left, St. George's, above right, sculpture in Hisham's Palace left.

The wall blocking the Jericho Road above & Donna coming out of Lazarus's tomb below.

Donna and kids at the synagogue

October 15 was the last day of the Muslim Ramadan long weekend and the Lutheran schools were closed because most of the students in the Lutheran schools are Muslim. Since Donna was free, my boss gave me the day off too. So we called one of our favourite taxi drivers, Khalid, and set out for Jericho.

Jericho lies directly east of Jerusalem in the Judean desert not far from the Dead Sea and close to the Jordanian border. You can see the Dead Sea from the town. Masada and Qumran are close by. It is likely the oldest town in the world; there is archaeological evidence of human habitation going back 10,000 years. And, of course, all of you know the story of Joshua and the battle of Jericho.

As we entered Jericho we passed through two check points: the 1st control was Israeli to see who was going in and out, and the 2nd Palestinian to make sure no Israelis entered. Jericho is under Palestinian control and, according to Khalid, is relatively "peaceful without the presence of Israeli soldiers".

Our first stop in Jericho was a 2000-year-old sycamore that Zacchaeus is supposed to have climbed to get a better view of Jesus as he passed through. Who knows for sure?

The next Jericho stop was Hisham's Palace the ruins of which date from the Umayyad period of Islamic expansion (early 8th century). The empire stretched from Europe to India, but Hisham preferred the desert solitude of Jericho near the Dead Sea to the bustle of Damascus.

It is not far from Hisham's palace to a Byzantine synagogue (5th century) that is cared for by a Palestinian family. The children with Donna in the photo above members of the family. Khalid pointed out to us that "Palestinians look after a Jewish synagogue but Israelis turn mosques into restaurants".

The photo just below Donna and the children was taken from the Mount of Temptation where Satan tempted Jesus during Jesus' 40 days in the wilderness. There is a Greek Orthodox monastery on the mountainside, that looks down on modern Jericho. In the photo the green patches are visible. Jericho's water comes from ancient wells that allow Jericho to produce the fines figs and dates in the world, not to mention oranges, bananas, and other tropical fruit.

On the way back to Jerusalem Khalid drove us into the desert to the Greek Orthodox Monastery of St. George which dates from the 3rd century. The monastery, where only three monks now live, is built on the side of cliff in a deep wadi surrounded by Bedouin settlements. The only access is on foot.

Our last stop was in the Palestinian village of al Azariyeh (place of Lazarus). In New Testament times it was called Bethany (house of unripe figs). The main street is the Jericho Road. It passes through a busy business area that was much busier before the Israelis built the separation wall. The wall makes the Jericho Road a dead end which separates al Azariyeh from East Jerusalem (see photo of wall). What used to be a 10-minute drive from the Mount of Olives to Bethany now takes an hour. As we stood at the wall, we could almost see our guest house, but we had no choice but to retrace our route. Every day Palestinian family members who were once just minutes apart have to take the "long way around" imposed by Israel.

In Bethany we visited the church commemorating Lazarus's resurrection, Lazarus's tomb, and a house old enough to be Mary's and Martha's (see photos), and then home to the guest house.

(Apologies for the order of photos and the formatting. At the moment it's beyond our control)