It is in the desert that the people of Israel met God. A place of purification, testing and hardship as they grew into the people of God. A place of refuge for bandits. Elijah high-tailed it out into the desert when Queen Jezebel threatened his life. There he met God. In Hosea, the desert is a place of purification: “I will now allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.” Hosea 2:14 John the Baptist preached in the desert. After baptism by John, Jesus spent forty days in prayer and fasting in the desert.
After the winter rains the desert is transformed and grazing begins. Here a mixed flock of goats and sheep, the goats act as a protection for the sheep.The parasites
that harm sheep are attracted to the goats and cause them no harm.
The Desert – west of Jericho. In Biblical times the desert was a place of danger, the home of demons, a place to be feared.
Fortress of Herod, on the mountain behind the camel.
A typical refuge for a flock.
A rare Black Iris which blooms in the spring
The Judean desert spreads east from the Mountain range that passes through Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron ending north of Beer-sheba, and south into the
Negev.
At the time of the desert monks the desert was considered a place of penance and purification. The Greek Monastery of St George Kosiba clings to the side of a steep cliff in the Wadi Qilt. In the Byzantine period 15 caves were occupied by hermits.
Across the valley in the cliff face a Hermit’s cell.
Looking across the valley to the monastery.
Interior of the hermitage, a cave burrowed out of the rock.
