Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Psalm 23:4
Yet the Wadi Qilt (or Qelt) through the Judean wilderness between Jericho and Jerusalem along the Roman road, is just that.
It is also the setting for Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan from Luke 10: A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers...
We also learned that on this road pilgrims on the way to Jerusalem would sing the Psalms of Ascent (Psalm 120-134).
In the late 5th century, John of Thebes built a monastery here at the site where it is believed that Elijah was fed by ravens. He moved there in 480AD.
The monastery was named after it's most famous resident, George of Coziba, who moved there from Cyprus as a teenage orphan. It is carved into the rock wall and overlooks a garden of olive and cypress trees. It was destroyed by the Persians in 614, rebuilt by the Crusaders and then left abandoned after the Crusaders were expelled. It was rebuilt and resettled in 1878 by a Greek monk, Kalinikos.
While we were there, we were persistently pursued by local Bedouins wanting to sell souvenirs. We bought some bracelets for our nieces from a young boy of about 8 years old.
Then we made our way to Jerusalem...
We passed some Bedouin camps along the way...
Then we reached the outskirts of Jerusalem...
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