Mount of Temptation

The Mount of Temptation is said to be the hill in the Judean Desert where Jesus was tempted by the devil. The exact location is unknown and impossible to determine. It is generally identified with Mount Quarantania, Arabic name: Jabal al-Qarantal, a mountain approximately 366m high, towering from the northwest over the town of Jericho in the West Bank. According to the public domain Catholic Encyclopedia (1907-1914), Quarantania is "a limestone peak on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho".DescriptionHalfway 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, 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 when the Greek Orthodox hoped to raise another monastery on the top of the mount but ran out of money.