sold it to Herod the Great. The latter irrigated the district and built a winter palace, the ruins of which were excavated by the Germans in 1909. Herod died at Jericho in 4 B.C.
New Testament Jericho sprang up somewhat to the north of the older town, became the seat of a bishop in the fourth century, but decayed after the fall of the Crusading kingdom, together with its once prosperous cultivations of dates, sugar-cane, balsam, henna, and other sub-tropical products. It is now a somewhat squalid township of 1,000 inhabitants and, as being the lowest town on the earth's surface (820 feet below sea-level), is unbearably hot in summer, although its winter climate is pleasant.
There is little to see in Jericho itself beyond the excavations of the German Oriental Society, which have laid bare the traces of an outer and inner course of walls and have unearthed a part of the actual masonry. Jericho is overlooked to the south-west by the Mount of Temptation (Jebel Qarantal), half-way up the face of which is perched an Orthodox monastery, remarkable chiefly for its amazing situation and for its fine view over the Ghor. Running westward from the Ghor is the cañon known as the Wadi Qelt, containing the small Orthodox monastery of S. George, also perched on the face of the cliff. The whole of this region was, in early Christian times, thickly dotted with the settlements of hermits.
Interesting processions to the Jordan take place from Jericho at the Orthodox Epiphany and Easter, when pilgrims, robed in white shrouds, bathe in the river. The bathing-place of the pilgrim is supposed to be the scene of the Baptism of Christ, the miraculous division of the waters by the cloak of Elijah, and the legend of S. Christopher, who carried the Infant Christ across the river. Between Jericho and the Dead Sea lie the large Orthodox monasteries of S. John (also known as the "Castle of the Jews") and of S. Gerasimos, incorporating early Christian remains.
For the peculiar tropical flora of the Jordan Valley, see Part V., § 9; for the Ghor and the Dead Sea in general, see Part. I., § 2, and Part VI., § 1.
