Following our customer's requests, we have just created a new tour which takes tourists to two unique sites in the Judea Desert - Herodion Fortress and Palace and Good Samaritan Inn.
Herodion was built by King Herod as his summer palace, powerful citadel and, finally, as his mausoleum. This huge artificial volcano stands alone between Jerusalem and Bethlehem surrounded by the Judea Desert.
And indeed, even today, Herodion is a wonder to behold. Herodion is very well-preserved and include the various halls of the fortress, ritual baths, water cisterns, and even the remains of a first-century synagogue.
Its story combines the life of King Herod, the most cruel person who also was an ingenious builder of all time, and two Jewish uprisings against the Romans, in the 1st and the 2nd centuries AD, where the fortress served as their stronghold.
HERODION
The Good Samaritan site got its name in the Byzantine period, when it was identified as the inn mentioned in the New Testament parable of the Good Samaritan.
The story is told in the Gospel of Luke (10:29–37) A man going from Jerusalem to Jericho was attacked by robbers who striped him, beated him and took all his money. A priest and a Levite passed by without helping him. And only a despised Samaritan stopsed and cared for him, taking him to an nearby inn and paid for his care. The great meaning of this story is that it is not important WHAT is a person but WHO he is.
This complex is a historic structure in its own right. It consists of the remnants of a road station from the Second Temple period, which was used by pilgrims to Jerusalem coming from Galilee and Gilead.
Remains have also been discovered here of an inn from the Byzantine period that served Christian pilgrims on their way to the Jordan River.
GOOD SMARITAN INN
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