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The Holy Land in a week · Stop 12 · Day 4

Tell es-Sultan, ancient Jericho

The village of Jericho in the Jordan Valley, with the hills of the wilderness behind, c. 1890–1900.
The village of Jericho in the Jordan Valley, with the hills of the wilderness behind, c. 1890–1900.Photochrom, Library of Congress · no known restrictions on publication

In the Bible

When the rams' horns sounded and the people shouted, the wall of Jericho collapsed. Later Elisha threw salt into the city's bad spring, and its water was healed.

Josh 6:20So when the rams’ horns sounded, the people shouted. When they heard the blast of the horn, the people gave a great shout, and the wall collapsed. Then all the people charged straight into the city and captured it.
2 Kgs 2:19–22Then the men of the city said to Elisha, “Please note, our lord, that the city’s location is good, as you can see. But the water is bad and the land is unfruitful.” “Bring me a new bowl,” he replied, “and put some salt in it.” So they brought it to him, and Elisha went out to the spring, cast the salt into it, and said, “This is what the LORD says: ‘I have healed this water. No longer will it cause death or unfruitfulness.’” And the waters there have been healthy to this day, according to the word spoken by Elisha.

Tradition

By tradition, the spring at the foot of the mound, Ain es-Sultan, is the one Elisha healed; it still waters the oasis.

Here today

An excavated mound of many layers, among them a stone tower of c. 8000 BC; how the remains relate to the story of Joshua is debated.

Through the eyes of old pilgrims

Here stood the city of Jericho, round whose walls the children of Israel circled with the Ark of the Covenant, and the walls fell down. Nothing is to be seen of it except the place where the Ark of the Covenant stood, and the twelve stones which the children of Israel brought out of Jordan.The Bordeaux Pilgrim, 333
This Jericho was once a great and very strong city; Joshua son of Nun took that Jericho and destroyed it utterly; now there is a Saracen village there … Around Jericho the land is good and fruitful, the plain fair and level, and around it stand many tall date palms.Abbot Daniel, 1106–1108 · our translation

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Land outlines: Natural Earth (public domain).