Most of the tour operators were not interested in taking us to Jericho. Jericho is in West Bank today, completely under Palestinian control and Israeli citizen are not allowed to go there for safety reasons.

This is 2022, Israelis and Palestinians were seemingly getting along reasonably well at the time I went. I think the reason was because there are not many structures to see in Jericho. Mostly ruins. But historically it is very important and you will see why.

At the last minute, we were able to find a bus tour that would take us to Jericho. Otherwise a private cab would charge us $800 to go, almost as if they didn’t want to go there. You have to go through a check post because all of it is still within Israel. That border works one-way, that is when you are re-entering Israel and only to make sure you are not bringing in weapons. No paperwork is checked. Crime is negligible in Jericho and a lot of residents commute into Jerusalem everyday for work.

Although desert, Jericho grows several crops of all kinds but mostly dates and almonds. Water is scarce which is why the springs become so important. It is part of the Fertile Crescent which continues up north past Sea of Galilee to Rivers Euphrates and Tigris, the Mesopotamia. To the south, it connects to the Rift Valley where Dead Sea sits, then all the way to Gulf of Aqaba. Then either a 50-mile boat ride across the Red Sea or walk Sinai Peninsula to where Suez Canal sits today.

There are two rift valleys in Africa and one of them you could take to Ethiopia all the way to Lake Victoria. Ethiopians were coming to Jerusalem during Jesus’s times and I wonder if Rift Valley is what they took. Although the waters of Dead Sea can’t be used, there are springs draining into Dead Sea that will sustain life.

Moses only saw Jericho from atop Mount Nebo. He never made it to Jericho. The Israelites with him did not want to go and charge their ancestors living in Canaan or Jericho. Moses waited 40 years and let his disciple Joshua lead the charge. They say 40 years means two generations. You have to be two generations removed from your roots and then feel convinced/motivated enough to attack your ancestral lands.

A thousand years later, 80 BC, Romans occupied Jericho. Marc Antony gifted Jericho to Cleopatra, the pharaoh from Egypt.

Jesus walked in Jericho by the sycamore tree shown. The Roman tax collector Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus but he was short. So he climbed the sycamore tree to take a good look at Jesus. That tree has long been dead but its next generation sycamore still stands in the same place. This tree is called Zacchaeus Tree.

The ruins in Jericho are the remnants of 23 civilizations that thrived here. You go back and forth in time, thousands of years at a time, like it was pocket change. Truly a time capsule.

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