Mount of Temptation

Jebel Quruntul
Mount of Temptation
Mount Quarantine
The Greek Orthodox Monastery of the Temptation on Mt Quruntul, 2021
Highest point
Elevation138 m (453 ft)[1][2]
Prominencec. 400 m (1,300 ft)
Coordinates31°52′29″N 35°25′50″E / 31.87472°N 35.43056°E / 31.87472; 35.43056[3]
Naming
EtymologyTemptation of Jesus;
Old French word for 'forty'[4]
Native nameجبل لقرنطل (Arabic)
Geography
Jebel Quruntul in the 1941 Survey of Palestine
LocationIsraeli-Occupied West Bank
Country State of Palestine
GovernorateJericho
MunicipalityJericho
Parent rangeJudaean Mountains
BiomeJudaean Desert
Geology
OrogenyJerusalem Formation[5]
Rock ageTuronian[5]
Rock typeLimestone[5]

Mount of Temptation, in Palestinian Arabic Jebel Quruntul (Arabic: جبل لقرنطل), is a mountain over the city of Jericho in the West Bank, in the State of Palestine; Historically the site of an ancient Hasmonean fortress, ancient Christian tradition identifies it as the location of the temptation of Jesus described in the New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, in which it is said that, from "a high place", the Devil offered Jesus rule over all the kingdoms of the world.

The city of Jericho lies at the feet east of Mount Quruntul, at 258 m (846 ft) below sea level, with the nearby Jordan River and the Dead Sea at even lower elevations, further to the east and southeast. The Mount has around 400 m (1,300 ft) of prominence over Jericho, which translates to an elevation of 138 m (453 ft) above sea level, and offers a commanding view of its fabled surroundings to the east.

Quruntul had previously been the location of a Seleucid and Maccabean fortress known as Dok (also Doq and Dagon). It was the scene of the assassination of Simon Maccabeus and two of his sons in 134 BC. Held by Antigonus during his war with Herod, the latter later improved the fort's water system. Since at least the 4th century, Christian tradition has specifically associated the forty days of Jesus's fasting that preceded his temptation with a cave on Jebel Quruntul. Eventually, it came to be associated with the high mountain in the Gospel's description of temptation.

Centuries after the death of Jesus, the Mount became the site of a lavra-type monastery, turned into a Catholic monastery during the era of the Crusades, and then into an Orthodox monastery since the late Ottoman period. Since 1998, the monastery halfway up the mountain has been connected with the tell holding the remains of ancient Jericho via a cable car and a center of religious tourism. In 2014, the mountain and monastery were made part of the State of Palestine's "Jericho Oasis Archaeological Park". It has also been nominated to the Tentative List for World Heritage status as part of religious traditions of El-Bariyah, the Judaean Desert.

  1. ^ CIA (1994), p. 18.
  2. ^ CIA (2008).
  3. ^ Jericho (2015).
  4. ^ Ramon, Amnon (2000). Around the Holy City: Christian Tourist Routes Between Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Jericho (PDF). Jerusalem: The Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies. p. 69. Retrieved 28 September 2022.
  5. ^ a b c Khayat et al. (2019).