Mount of Temptation

The Mount of Temptation is just West of Jericho. It can be walked in one day.

This harsh, bare mountain stands above the city of Jericho and the road known as the "Valley of the Shadow of Death."

The panoramic view from its summit sweeps from the green oasis of Jericho to the Jordan Valley to the Dead Sea, and to the vast mountainous region surrounding it. The Mount of Temptation is locally known as Jabel Quruntul, from "Quaranta" - forty, the number of days in the Gospel account of Christ's fast, when he withdrew into the wilderness after being baptised by John the Baptist in the nearby Jordan.

The episode of the temptations of Jesus is described by Matthew: "Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God... Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve".

Clearly visible on the side of the mountain are the walls and buildings of a Greek Orthodox monastery, built during the second half of last century on the site of an ancient paleo-Christian church. A grotto there has been made into a chapel, and is believed to be the place where Jesus fasted for forty days and forty nights.