Holy sites in jordan

Posted by Jordan Tours on December 15th, 2020

Jordan tours

Jordan is a modern country with an ancient culture, a land of which visitors can walk through the valleys, hills and plains whose names have become part of human history by virtue of the simple deeds and profound messages of prophets who walked the land and crossed its rivers during their lives.

Many of the sites where they are said to have performed miracles or reached out to ordinary people have been identified, excavated and protected, and are now more easily accessible to visitors.

The site of John the Baptist's settlement at Bethany beyond the Jordan, where Jesus was baptised, has long been known from the Bible (John 1:28 and 10:40) and from the Byzantine and medieval texts. The site has now been identified on the east bank of the Jordan River, in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and is being systematically surveyed, excavated, restored, and prepared to receive pilgrims and visitors in early 2000. The site is located half an hour by car from the Jordanian capital Amman.

John 1:28 speaks of `… Bethany beyond Jordan tours, where John was baptising,` while John 10:40 mentioned an incident when Jesus escaped from hostile crowds in Jerusalem and `went away again across the Jordan to the place where John at first baptised …..' The site of this Bethany beyond (east of) the Jordan River is not to be confused with Bethany near Jerusalem, which was the hometown of Lazarus.

The Bethany area sites formed part of the early Christian pilgrimage route between Jerusalem, the Jordan River, and Mount Nebo.
The area is also associated with the biblical account of how the Prophet Elijah (Mar Elias in Arabic) ascended to heaven in a whirlwind on a chariot of fire, having parted the waters of the Jordan River and walked across it with his anointed successor, the Prophet Elisha (2, Kings 2:5-14). Joshua is also said to have crossed the Jordan River at this point.

The Jordanian Department of Antiquities has now identified nearly 20 related sites within an area stretching some 3 km east of the Jordan River. The site of Bethany beyond the Jordan has also been known by other names over the past 2000 years, including Beth-Abara of Bethabara, Beit el-Obour (`house of the crossing` in Arabic), Beit `Anya, Bethania , Bethennabris,`Ainon where now Saphsaphas`( on the sixth century Byzantine Madaba mosaic map of Holy Land), Saphsas or Sapsas, and perhaps also Beth-Barah (Judges 7:24-25).

The main settlement of Bethany beyond Jordan, some 1.5 km east of the Jordan River, comprises structures on and around a small nature hill, adjacent to the spring and small oasis at the head of the Wadi Kharrar (a perennial riverbed). The hill has long been known as Elijah's Hill, or Jebel Mar Elias or Tell Mar Elias in Arabic. The site comprises a settlement that was inhabited from the time of Christ and John the Baptist, throughout most of the Byzantine period, into the early Islamic era, and again in Ottoman centuries.

Excavations of the earliest settlement from the days of Christ and John the Baptist have revealed at least three plastered baptism pools, a system of water pipes and channels to carry water to and from the site, and associated domestic and other structures. Ancient writers and pilgrims called the fresh spring at the site of Elijah's Hill both John the Baptist's Spring and Elijah's Spring.

The later fifth to sixth century settlement from the Byzantine era was a substantial walled monastery, comprising plastered pools, water cisterns, and at least three churches and other buildings with plain white and coloured mosaic floors, some with crosses in the mosaics. One church mosaic inscription mentions Rotorius as the `head of the monastery`. 

The Byzantine writers Jerome and Eusebius mentioned `Bethabara beyond the Jordan` in the fourth century as a pilgrimage destination where people went to be baptised. Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, is to have crossed the Jordan River and visited Elijah's Hill and the cave where John the Baptist lived, and built a church there to commemorate him. Stone and mud structures on the summit of Elijah's Hill and on the adjacent hills to the south and east date from the mid-to-late Ottoman period (16^th-18^th  centuries), when Greek Orthodox monks established a monastery at the site comprising different structures for worship, their residence and accommodation for visiting pilgrims.

The 20 ancient sites identified from the Jordan River to Wadi Kharar and eastwards to Wadi Gharabah formed stations along the pilgrims' route from Jerusalem to the Jordan River and finally to Mount Nebo where Moses died and was buried after viewing the promised land. The anonymous Pilgrim of Bordeaux in 333 AD gives the location of the site of Jesus' baptism as Roman miles (7400 m) north of the Dead Sea, which is the area near where Wadi Kharrar enters the Jordan River.

Church writers and pilgrims in the fifth to seventh centuries AD mentioned churches in the lower Jordan River / Bethany region that commemorated the baptism of Christ.

The remains of a large Byzantine church have been discovered and are being excavated on the east bank of the river; they include fine coloured stone pavements and mosaics, and Corinthian capitals, column bases and drums. John Moscus, writing in his seventh century book The Spiritual Meadow, mentions a monastic complex (or`Laura') in this area with many cells inhabited by hermits, built near a cave after a vision of John the Baptist by a monk from Jerusalem who was on a pilgrimage to Sinai. The monk Epiphanius, writing in the late eight or mid-ninth century, mentions a cave located by a spring nearly three miles east of the river, where John the baptist lived and baptised. The early 12^th century traveller Abbot Daniel mentions a grotto of St John the Baptist, and in 1187 Jean Phocas wrote about a shrine and cave of John the Baptist located east of the river.

Fragmentary remains of several other small structures with tiles, pottery and cut stones-possibly churches or monks' residences-have been identified between the river and Bethany.

Other Holy sites of significant interest are Madaba, which is repeatedly mentioned in the Old Testament accounts such as Moses and the Exodus, David's war against the Moabites, and Isaiah's oracle against Moab; and Mount Nebo, where the prophet Moses died and was buried after viewing the promised Land.

In addition to Bethany beyond the Jordan and Mount Nebo, there are three other holy sites that were designated by the Vatican as a Millennium 2000 pilgrimage sites:
 

Anjara: Pilgrimage to our Lady of the Mountain Church (a rebuilt cave that is venerated as a place where Jesus and his mother Mary passed during their journeys between Galilee, Decapolis, Bethany beyond the Jordan and Jerusalem.

Kherbet el Wahadneh: pilgrimage to the birthplace of St Elijah.

Beheading of St John the Baptist: pilgrimage to Machaerus.

The Dead Sea, Umm Al Rassas, Amman, Umm Qais, the Zerqa River, the King's Highway, spring of Moses, Kerak, Wadi Arabah and Lot's Santuary are just a few of the many biblical sites that are worth visiting in the serene and spiritual land.

As for the Islamic Faith, Jordan is a blessed land that links Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem, and accordingly, has witnessed the birth of Islam and its growth as a global religion. It is also the land that was travelled by prophets and men of God, spreading His word and promoting virtuous living.

A large number of the Prophet's Companions were martyred and buried in Jordan, for Jordan was the first territory outside the Arabian Peninsula to which Islam spread, it was also the first point of contact between Islam and the non-Arab world.

Three important historical sites in Jordan are of significance to Islam, they are the sites of the Battle of Mutah, the site of two battles of Yarmouk and the Battle of Fahl.

Jordan is also possibly the site of the famous childhood encounter of the prophet Mohammad (PBUH) with the Monk Bhira and the later encounter with the Monk Nestor at the site of Mayfa'ah (Umm al Rassas).

Mysterious as its name suggests, the cave of the Seven Sleepers is unique among the religious sites in Jordan. Its mystical story is supported by the chapter in the Holy Quran and by the parallel Christian legend of the Sleepers or Ephesus. Located on the road to Sahab, about 10 km south of Amman, the site features Roman and Byzantine ruins, as well as a cave with three rock-hewn graves.