Palestine - Baptism Site “Eshria’a” (Al-Maghtas)

The Baptism Site, or “Eshria’a” (Al-Maghtas), is located on the Western Bank of the Jordan River about 10 km east of Jericho in the southern Jordan Valley, and 9 km north of the Dead Sea. The Jordan Rift Valley stretches from Lake Tiberias to the Dead Sea and includes numerous cultural heritage sites dating from the prehistoric eras up to the present. The Baptism Site was immensely populated, especially during the Roman period (1st century BC) through the Mamluk period (15th century AD). Beginning of the 4th century AD, many travellers and pilgrims—notably Bordeaux (333), Bishop Williband (beginning of the eight century AD), and the Russian Abbot Daniel (1106 AD)—wrote detailed descriptions about the baptism place and the ecclesiastical buildings in their environs. According to Christian tradition, it is the location where Jesus Christ was baptized by John the Baptist. It is considered the third holiest Christian site after the church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, and is deemed the birthplace of Jesus’s spiritual strength. From the Byzantine period onward, numerous monasteries, chapels, cells and churches have been erected in the area in commemoration of the baptism of Jesus. It is satiated with sights of Baptismal ceremonies, a regular occurrence which attracts Christian pilgrims from all over the world and testifies to the religious significance of the location.