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Temptation in the desert|
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The Mount of Temptation (Mount Quarantania) is said to be the hill in the Judaean Desert where Jesus fasted for 40 days in a cave and then was tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:8). This followed His baptism, when God proclaimed Him to be His Son (the first time as an adult, that Jesus was clearly pointed out to be the saviour that Israel was expecting).
The exact location of the cave is unknown and impossible to determine. It is generally identified with Mount Quarantania, towering from the northwest over the town of Jericho in the West Bank. This picture was taken from within the present town of Jericho towards the mount.
To the left of the mount you can see the longish white Greek Orthodox Monastery of the Temptation or "Deir al-Qarantal" in Arabic. The monastry is to claimed to be built over the cave where Jesus fasted. You can just make out the path we climbed to the monastry, from the edge of the town. The darker building, almost in the middle of the mount is the top station of a cable car that was built in expectation of crowds that visited in the year 2000.
Above Qarantal, on top of the mount, is a modern wall that sits on the ruins of the Hasmonean (later Herodian) fortress Dok or Duq. The modern wall was built at the end of the 19th century when the Greek Orthodox hoped to raise another monastery on the top of the mount but ran out of money.
camera | COOLPIX P500 |
exposure mode | shutter priority |
shutterspeed | 1/1250s |
aperture | f/4.0 |
sensitivity | ISO160 |
focal length | 6.7mm |