Visited October 2017

Reading the previous reviews from Bethany beyond the Jordan, I had an impression that most of the visitors are seeing only one component of the inscribed site – the area of the churches of Saint John the Baptist which is located close to the Jordan river and the river bank itself. It is maybe because this is the place where most of the tours from the visitors’ information booth are taken. And you must be a part of the tour, ‘cos this site is located straight at the border with Israel – while at the Jordan bank you can see pilgrims on the other side of river just 20 metres from you at Kasr al-Jahud. (It is kind of a ceremony as many people are coming to the Israeli side, where the infrastructure is very well prepared and organized to host pilgrims willing to be baptized or to ‘take’ the second baptism, they enter the shallow and dirty water, all wearing white, singing and praying; it has a look and feel of something special… In a meantime on the Jordanian side – not a lot of pilgrims and they are not allowed to immerse themselves, so they just pour some drops on their heads while standing in the water very close to the platform.)

On the way to the site we were passing by new churches and monasteries being built by different Christian denominations, and then we spent around one hour at this component. Our guide told us about the history and importance of that site to Christians, showed the place where Jesus was baptised (although we cannot be sure that this happened exactly at this specific site), explained what we can see looking at the remains of two churches and took us to the river. And after that, including the compulsory visit to the gift shop, he said it was time to go back… And I still wanted to see the second archaeological component, Jabal Mar Elias with the caves, baptism pools, remains of Roman baths and Byzantine churches I have read before this visit. He was not too happy to hear that and explained that regular tours looked like ours and to see more we should arrange everything before coming. But seeing me very intent, he made a call, and said that first we have to come back to the starting point to leave other tourists, and then if we had our own car we could visit the rest of the inscribed property in it, and with him as a guide of course. Before leaving he pointed me the way to the caves which are located just few hundred meters from John the Baptist churches. You cannot get into any of these caves at the moment, but at least you can see them located in the face of the rock.

During the second part of the tour, in our rented car, we went to Jabal Mar Elias. The site is not big but gives a very good perspective of the area. The first thing that you notice is the big arch, built on the foundations of a Byzantine church before the visit of pope John Paul II. Then you will see the cave of saint John the Baptist, called a lower church, the upper church from Byzantine period with some still visible mosaics, the remains of the Roman bath and remains of three of baptism pools (on of them on the photo). We wondered around for more than one hour and our guide became so glad that he could share his knowledge with somebody more interested in this site than other tourists. He even gave us a short lecture about the evolution of early Christian architecture and geology of Jordan Valley and long gone Wadi Kharrar where most of the hermit caves are located.

As this is one of the lowest place on Earth, it is very hot and no shadow. Take some water, because you’ll be thirsty…