The large loop in the Jordan River opposite Jericho has long been identified as the spot where Jesus Christ was baptised by John the Baptist. It is called al Maghtas in Arabic. Less than two kilometres east of the river is another important place associated with the lives of Jesus and John the Baptist – the settlement of Bethany, where John lived and baptised. John 1:28 refers to it as “Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptising.” In jordan10: 40 it is mentioned as the place to which Jesus fled for safety after being threatened with stoning in Jerusalem: “Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptising in the early days.”  

This settlement of Bethany has recently been identified on the south bank of the small perennial stream named Wadi Kharrar, just east of the Jordan River and opposite Jericho. It is being excavated, protected, and made accessible to visitors. The small natural hill forming the core of Bethany is called Elijah’s Hill, or Tel Mar Elias in Arabic, Local tradition for thousands of ears has identified it as the place from where Elijah ascended to heaven. Bethany’s ancient remains include structures from the 1^st century AD settlement of John the Baptist, including large plastered pools with steps for full immersion. The 5^th – 6^th Century AD remains at Bethany are those of the Byzantine period settlement, also called Ainon or Saphsaphas and depicted  on the 6^th Century Madaba mosaic map of the holy land.

When Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness after is baptism (Mark 1:12), he may well have been in the stark, desolate marl area immediately east of the Jordan River and north of Bethany. He spread his message throughout Transjordan on several different occasions, including during his last journey from Galilee to Jerusalem Matthew 19).
The wide plain at the Jordan River Valley’s southern end, around the north-east Dead Sea coast, was called at Plains of Moab in the Bible, and was where Joshua and his people camped before crossing to Canaan (Joshua3: 1).
At Abel-Shittim, modern Tell Hammam in the Plains of Moab, Joshua was designated as Moses’ successor (numbers 27:32; Joshua 2:1). Nearby and recently excavated Tell Nimrin was Beth-Nimrah, a fortified city of the tribe of Gad (Numbers 32:36). The Wadi Nimrin riverbed is likely the biblical Waters of Nimrim, which once dried up in antiquity (Isaiah 15:6; Jeremiah 48:34).  

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Central Jordan Valley Sites