Travel to West Bank: Wadi Qelt and Ein Sultan

These pictures trace the Wadi Qelt from the Monastery of Saint George down to Jericho and the famous spring there.

Make default image size larger

The monastery is a sibling to Mar Saba, shown in another folder. The irrigation channels shown in the second half of this folder hug the left (south) wall of the canyon.

The monastery, with one of its many outliers. The wall was built to protect against Bedouin.

Close-up. Is the water source a seep, a cistern, or buckets lugged from below?

The bell-tower, still in use.

Swinging left from the previous picture.

Monastic cells are tucked into crevices along the cliff wall; some seem almost inaccessible.

Several monastic cells, some in ruins, can be made out.

Along the south rim, a massive stone wall supports a water channel built to carry water to Jericho.

The same channel, viewed from a more accessible point.

The same channel is at the upper right; another, still in use, is at the lower left.

The operating channel in the previous picture appears here at the lower left, where it feeds into the storage pond on the right. In the distance, the oasis of Jericho.

Down near the toe of the alluvial fan shown in the last picture there's a famous spring, Ein Sultan. The setup there today is none too glamorous. Here's the pond that stores the spring's water.

A pump house on the site, to increase water production.

A channel bringing water to the local citrus groves. Wadi Qelt is in the mountains in the background.