Mount of Temptation

The exact location of the Mount of Temptation is unknown. It is generally identified with Mount Quarantana[1] or Quarantania, Arabic name: Jabal al-Quruntul, from its Crusader name, Mons Quarantana,[2] a mountain approximately 366 metres (1,201 ft) high, towering from the northwest over the town of Jericho in the West Bank. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia (1907-1914), Quarantania is "a limestone peak on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho".[3]

Halfway up to the top of the mount is the Greek Orthodox Monastery of the Temptation or "Deir al-Qarantal" in Arabic. Above Qarantal, on top of the cliff, is a modern wall that sits on the ruins of the Hasmonean (later Herodian) fortress Dok or Duq (1 Macc 16:15), mentioned in the First Book of Maccabees, which appears as Dagon in Josephus' "Antiquities of the Jews" (Ant., XIII, viii, 1; BJ, I, ii, 3). The modern wall was built at the end of the 19th century: the Greek Orthodox hoped to raise another monastery on the top of the mount, but ran out of money.

Mount of Temptation cable car

In 1998 an Austrian-Swiss company built a 1,330 metres (4,360 ft)-long cable car from Jericho's Tell es-Sultan, the mound where the prehistorical and biblical towns once stood, to the level of the monastery, in preparation for the year 2000 when large numbers of tourists were expected.[4]The cable car is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the "longest cable car aerial tramway below sea level."[5]

The Mount of Temptation is mentioned in a poem of the Temptation event by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.[6]

• Chariton the Confessor, a monk and saint who established a lavra here at the beginning of the 4th century

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•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Temptation of Christ". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Easton, Matthew George (1897). "?". Easton's Bible Dictionary (New and revised ed.). T. Nelson and Sons.