Bethlehem, Jericho and Qasr al-Yahud

This tour of Bethlehem and Jericho heads past the Inn of the Good Samaritan; where Jesus set his famous parable. Driving through the Judean Desert past Wadi Kelt we see the 5th-century Monastery of St. George clinging to the cliffs and stop briefly at the sign indicating “sea level” before descending to Jericho.

In the Old Testament, the walls of Jericho fell as Joshua marched his army around the perimeter in the name of God. In the New Testament Zacchaeus, the tax collector climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see Jesus entering Jericho. On our Jericho tour, we see the famed sycamore tree. We can spot Mount Temptation not far from Jericho. Here Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness and the devil tried to tempt Him to forsake God.

Leaving Jericho the tour continues to Bethlehem where Christ was born just over 2,000 years ago. The Bethlehem tour stops in Manger Square where we visit the Church of the Nativity, which holds the Grotto of the Nativity where Jesus was born and where the original excavated mosaic of the 4th century can be seen. Today the church is a treasure trove of exquisite features. In the Holy Grotto, a silver star indicates the exact place Christ was born.

The next stop in Bethlehem is the Church of St. Catherine. We go beneath the church into an ancient cave where St. Jerome translated the Hebrew Bible into Latin. We leave Bethlehem on our return journey to Jerusalem and pass Shepherds Field. It was here that shepherds watched their sheep by night on Christmas Eve.

This tour includes Qasr al-Yahud, the place on the Jordan River where John baptized Jesus. At Qasr al-Yahud, the Jordan River became accessible to visitors wishing to be baptized there. This is also where the Israelites may have crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land. After an exhilarating and spiritually-charged journey, the Bethlehem, Jericho, and  Qasr al-Yahud tour comes to an end.