Jericho is called the oldest city in the world. Not only does it date back to the time of Joshua, but the layers that were found are seen to date much farther back. Jericho is a Tel, meaning cities have been built, destroyed and built upon again, creating layers in the earth. Jericho is about 800 ft below sea level and the temperature is constantly hot compared to the rest of Israel, rarely reaching temperatures below 50°. Palm trees dot the landscape and the Dead Sea is a few miles away but within sight. Reading the story of Joshua and the walls of Jericho, I pictured a large impenetrable city. The Bible story seems to portray the Israelites as the underdogs and the people of Jericho as the unconquerable enemies. However, upon reaching Jericho and seeing it for the first time, it is much smaller I imagined. It is about 10 acres total and would take 10 minutes to walk around. It would not have been hard to walk around Jericho seven times on the seventh day, and it is likely that the people of Israel could have surrounded the entire city by themselves, creating one giant continuous loop.
Jericho is also the second most excavated city of all time, coming in close to Jerusalem itself. The ruins dating to the time of Joshua are still visible. One such ruins are the walls. Jericho would have had a stone retainment wall at the bottom of the tel and a mud-brick wall on top of it. The retainment wall has been dug out, but the mud bricks in the section of the wall I saw, were no longer visible. There is also evidence of a burn layer in the side of the tel, from when the Israelites finally captured the city and burned all that remained, including the grain. The burnt grain is fascinating, there is no other explanation for it other than the Israelites obeying God’s command. Any other army would have taken it for themselves, it never would have occurred to them to burn perfectly good grain.
As we climbed to the top of the Tel of Jericho and read the story in Joshua 6, I could see a 360°view of the city. I tried to picture the Israelite army coming up from the plains of Jericho as an invading force to the city. Then they camped out of arrow shot but would march around it in silence for 6 days. The people of Jericho probably wondering what the Israelites were doing. But then on the seventh day hearing screams from them and the subsequent sound of their defenses dropping, knowing they have been miraculously defeated.
I also learned that there are two Jerichos. There is the site of the Old Testament Jericho, where the famous Walls of Jericho story takes place. But there is also an administrative site of Jericho that was built by Herod. He used this to manage affairs, as a fortress to protect Jericho and a palace for him to live. And we would visit that the next day.
The next morning, at the crack of dawn, my group took a trip to see these ruins of the palace and administrative centers of Herod. We sat on the ruined columns of Herod’s palace eating breakfast and watching the sunrise through the scattered clouds. Never before has eating a breakfast of cereal, yogurt and a banana tasted so good in the wee hours of the morning while watching the golden sunrise. Through the breaking clouds the sun shone around us illuminating the landscape and ruins on the mountain just across from us. These ruins were in the middle of a Bedouin camp, so the site of rag tag tents and smell of goats filled the crisp morning air, while a few raindrops graced us with their presence. It was a calm morning, but the anticipation of what was coming next buzzed through the air. We were to hike from Jericho to Jerusalem that day, a full 18 miles through unknown terrain. We would journey through the Wadi Qilt also known as the Way of the Good Samaritan.
We had an Arab friend following us for the first 3 or so miles. He met us at the ruins, as we were finishing breakfast, on his donkey and was selling traditional head coverings. Three of the guys bought them immediately. However, the next two times we stopped; other guys decided they needed one too. They were like Moses, leading us through the wilderness of Jericho. Our friend also taught us how to throw rocks with his incredible underhanded force and gave us food to eat, which was nothing more than leaves he found in the wild that tasted of lemon.
The trail began high up on the side of the mountains. Far below was the river, and the glimpses of the canyon were stunning. It was green and luscious throughout and the smells of jasmine and lavender would catch your nose at random moments. Thirty people wound around the curves of the Judean mountain trail in single file, like a line of ducks following their parents. It was a leisurely beginning, following a flat path, but it would get remarkably harder as the day progressed. I initially believed the trail would be steadily sloping to climb the 4000 ft in elevation and end at our intended destination of Jerusalem. This was not at all what the trail was like. The entire day consisted of climbing up a few large boulders, climbing down the cliffs and then crossing the river and repeating this over and over and over again. The trail markers were red and white, scattered on the rocks and we followed them like our lives depended on it. We made a few detours when the marks were not visible, sometimes guessing correctly, and sometimes backtracking and taking the other path. One moment I was climbing through rocky terrain and up steep, sheer cliffs, the next moment almost completely submerged in the river, and the next drying out while the sun shone down on us as we walked through a field of violet and lemon colored wildflowers and crimson poppies. The cliffs loomed large around us, making us feel like ants. The weather, although predicted to rain on us, was blue skies and sunny all day, it was perfection.
The first river crossing was crisp, but refreshing, and took a moment to get used to. We began with our pants rolled as high as they could go, so we didn’t have to walk in sopping wet clothes all day. This theory, however, was quickly discarded on our first break. I realized if there is an opportunity to go down natural water-slides and through rapids, never chicken out on that experience, no matter what I am dressed in. Many of the guys were in their swimsuits, but the girls, fully clothed, went down the rapids anyway. We decided it would be better to take the once in a lifetime opportunity we were being handed, rather than miss it to be dry all day. And it was totally worth it. One by one like a parade of penguins we hopped into the water and shot down the rapids. After the first time down, I learned quickly how to lean my body a certain way, so I could avoid the rocks below that would take no mercy on me if I would happen to hit one. And being aware of keeping my head above water as the current and drop offs were strong enough to give me a refreshing dunk (and did manage overpower my efforts a few times). I was either soaking wet or damp for the rest of the hike, because after this first water slide, there were many more river crossings to take place, until we eventually would walk through the river for fun, because why not? we were already wet.
For the next 11 miles we only stopped periodically to wait for others to catch up, take a water break, or jump in the water. We crossed the river time and time again with the strong help from the guys, taking our hands, allowing us to give them our entire body weight and leading us across. The crossings were all difficult, between deep water, strong currents and slippery rocks it was hard to maintain balance without another hand to guide you along and tell you where to step.
Reaching our lunch spot by 3:00, we realized that we would not be able to make it to Jerusalem this day. I was disappointed because I was so looking forward to accomplishing this massive hike, but we were all banged up, bruised and scratched and didn’t know how exhausted we were from what we had just been through. When we finally made it out of the woods, we could hear voices and see a building, rejoicing that we had finally found civilization! And it wasn’t until we finally sat down to eat that our muscles told us how much we had actually exerted ourselves. That packed peanut butter sandwich never tasted so good.
It is amazing to think that it the biblical times, everyone wanting to go from Jericho to Jerusalem needed to go through the Wadi Qilt, or up on the ridge. It is a difficult journey to make on foot no matter what route you are taking, and it would have been a full day’s journey. We only made it halfway and it was getting close to sunset. Experiencing the rigorous terrain gave me a greater appreciation for and knowledge of the journeys that are recorded in the Bible. I am living in the land of the Bible times. This is the first time that I really understood and was able to experience the ancient land. I was no longer looking at a topographical map of it, my legs and feet were finally feeling their way through it.
The Wadi Qilt from Jericho
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