Mount of Temptation, in Palestinian Arabic ( ar, جبل لقرنطل), is a mountain over the town of

Jericho Jericho ( ; ar, أريحا ; he, יְרִיחוֹ ) is a Palestinian city in the West Bank. It is located in the Jordan Valley, with the Jordan River to the east and Jerusalem to the west. It is the administrative seat of the Jericho Gove ...

in the Judean Desert, in the West Bank. Ancient Christian tradition identifies it as the location of the temptation of Jesus described in the New Testament

Gospels Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, in which it is said that, from "a high place", the Devil offered Jesus rule over all the kingdoms of the world. Since at least the 4th century,

Christian tradition Christian tradition is a collection of traditions consisting of practices or beliefs associated with Christianity. These ecclesiastical traditions have more or less authority based on the nature of the practices or beliefs and on the group in que ...

has specifically associated the forty days of Jesus's fasting that preceded his temptation with a cave on Jebel Quruntul. Eventually, it came to be associated with the high mountain in the Gospel's description of temptation. Jericho lies at the feet east of Mount Quruntul, at below sea level, with the nearby

Jordan River The Jordan River or River Jordan ( ar, نَهْر الْأُرْدُنّ, ''Nahr al-ʾUrdunn'', he, נְהַר הַיַּרְדֵּן, ''Nəhar hayYardēn''; syc, ܢܗܪܐ ܕܝܘܪܕܢܢ ''Nahrāʾ Yurdnan''), also known as ''Nahr Al-Shariea ...

and the

Dead Sea The Dead Sea ( he, יַם הַמֶּלַח, ''Yam hamMelaḥ''; ar, اَلْبَحْرُ الْمَيْتُ, ''Āl-Baḥrū l-Maytū''), also known by other names, is a salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank ...

at even lower elevations, further to the east and southeast. The Mount has around of prominence over Jericho, which translates to an elevation of above sea level, and offers a commanding view of its fabled surroundings to the east. Quruntul had previously been the location of a Seleucid and

Maccabean The Maccabees (), also spelled Machabees ( he, מַכַּבִּים, or , ; la, Machabaei or ; grc, Μακκαβαῖοι, ), were a group of Jewish rebel warriors who took control of Judea, which at the time was part of the Seleucid Empire ...

fortress known as Dok (also Doq and Dagon), which was the site of the assassination of

Simon Maccabeus Simon Thassi ( he, ''Šīməʿōn haTassī''; died 135) was the second son of Mattathias and thus a member of the Hasmonean family. Names The name "Thassi" has a connotation of "the Wise", a title which can also mean "the Director", "the G ...

and two of his sons in 134. Centuries after the death of Jesus, the Mount became the site of a lavra-type monastery, turned into a Catholic monastery during the era of the Crusades, and then into an Orthodox monastery since the late Ottoman period. Since 1998, the monastery halfway up the mountain has been connected with the tell holding the remains of ancient Jericho via a

cable car Cable car most commonly refers to the following cable transportation systems: * Aerial lift, such as aerial tramways and gondola lifts, in which the vehicle is suspended in the air from a cable ** Aerial tramway ** Chairlift ** Gondola lift *** Bi ...

and a center of religious tourism. In 2014, the mountain and monastery were made part of the State of Palestine's "Jericho Oasis Archaeological Park". It has also been nominated to the

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Further reading