Bethany Beyond the Jordan
The third most holy site for Christians in the world, after the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Church of the Nativity, is the site of the baptism of Jesus Christ, known in Arabic as al-Maghtas.
Excavations at Wadi Kharrar carried out after the 1994 peace treaty found evidence of a complex of churches, hermit cells and other buildings described in the writings of many pilgrims who have visited the site since the 2nd century AD. Now preserved as a tourist destination, al-Maghtas attracts tourists year-round.
St John’s Gospel refers to ‘Bethany beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing’ (John 1:28), and to Jesus going ‘across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing’ (John 10:40). This has recently been identified with a site just east of the Jordan and a few kilo-metres north of the Dead Sea. It lies near the western end of Wadi Kharar, near the river; the spring there could have supplied both Elijah and John the Baptist.