Mount of Temptation

The Mount of Temptation is said to be the hill in the Judean Desert where Jesus was tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:8).

The Mount of Temptation overlooks Jericho. The Mount of Temptation is called the Mount of al-Quruntul, and Quruntul is a Greek word of Latin origin meaning forty. It is also called the Mount of Forty, which is 350 meters above sea level and overlooks a wonderful view of the Jordan Valley in the city of Jericho, one of the cities of Palestine. The Lord Christ has 40 days and nights, fasting and worshiping. He retreated on this mountain, and Satan followed him, as mentioned in the “Gospel of Luke.” And in this place, Christ said to Satan: “Man shall not live by bread alone.” The monastery was built over the cave in which Jesus resided, and the first to think of preserving the sanctity of the place was Queen Helena, where an ancient construction was built on it since 325 AD.

Mount of Temptation cable car

In 1998 an Austrian-Swiss company built a 1,330 meters (4,360 ft.)-long cable car from Jericho's Tell el-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. The cable car is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the "longest cable car aerial tramway below sea level."