Wadi Qelt

CanyonsWest Bank,Palestine

A desert gorge between Jerusalem and Jericho where the footpath is a 2,000-year-old aqueduct, with a cliff monastery of blue domes halfway down.

September·Edge of season

Sep–Nov

Autumn eases the heat and brings the raptors back — steppe buzzards and kites over the cliffs in September and October, 36°C cooling to the mid-20s by November. The rains hold off until late in the window, so most of it is dry, kind walking.

Year-round Three springs — Ein Fara, Ein Fawwar and Ein Qelt — run all year and the 2,000-year-old aqueduct carries their water along the cliff without a break; the monks open the monastery gate most mornings.

Wadi Qelt is a desert gorge running down from the hills of Jerusalem to Jericho, and the footpath through it is an aqueduct two thousand years old. The two things go together better than they sound. An aqueduct only works if it falls at a steady, gentle gradient, so the channel never climbs and never drops away under you. It contours the gorge wall from one spring to the next, with shallow clear water beside your boots, until the monastery comes round a bend on the cliff opposite. One of the springs does not behave. Ein Fawwar, halfway up the wadi, gushes, stops, runs dry and then gushes again. Water fills a hidden cavity until it spills over a natural siphon and empties in a rush; air breaks the flow, and the cavity starts filling again. Behind the monastery's blue domes are cool stone rooms built straight into a natural cave. A small Greek Orthodox community still lives in them, and the church keeps the relics of three saints of this wadi. Below it you can leave the channel and scramble down to the canyon bed, where the walls close in and the domes hang over you. The bed is dry stone most of the year, because the water is all up in the channel; rock hyrax bask on the ledges and gazelle keep to the ridgelines. Rain on the Jerusalem hills changes that within hours, and brown floodwater comes down the gorge under a clear sky. The old road between Jerusalem and Jericho ran along the ridge just south of here, and it was robbed often enough that the Good Samaritan was set on it. In spring and autumn buzzards, kites and snake eagles ride the thermals along the cliffs. The rock face above the monastery is pitted with dark openings. Some are plain caves, some are walled-up shelters on ledges with no visible way up to them. They are not all ancient: a Romanian hermit called John Jacob moved into one in 1953 and lived there until his death in 1960, and his body lies in the monastery below.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Come in the first hours after sunrise — the gorge is still cool and half in shadow, and the monastery gate is open through the morning before shutting for the middle of the day.
Rain falling on the Jerusalem hills is enough to flood this canyon — a dry bed can fill under a perfectly clear sky here, so stay out of the wadi on stormy days.
Carry more water than feels sensible — there is no shade anywhere along the trail, and summer afternoons on the bare rock climb past 40°C.
The short way in is from Jericho, driving up to the cliff-top viewpoint and walking the last 20-30 steep minutes down to the gate; covered shoulders and knees are required to go inside.

Things to do

1
Walk the aqueduct channel to the monastery
An aqueduct only works if it falls at a steady, gentle gradient, which is why this one doubles as a footpath: the route never climbs and never drops away. It contours the gorge wall from one spring to the next until the monastery appears round a bend, hung on the cliff opposite.
2
Step inside Saint George of Choziba
Behind the blue domes are cool stone rooms built straight into a natural cave, still home to a small Greek Orthodox community. The church keeps the relics of three saints of this wadi, among them the sixth-century monk the monastery is named for.
3
Drop to the wadi floor below the monastery
Leave the channel and scramble down to the canyon bed, where the cliffs close in and the monastery hangs overhead. The bed itself is dry stone most of the year — the water is all up in the channel — and rock hyrax bask on the ledges while gazelle keep to the ridgelines above.
4
Pick out the hermit cells in the cliff
Look up and the rock face is pitted with dark openings. Some are simple caves, others walled-up shelters wedged onto ledges you cannot see any way of reaching. They are not only ancient: a Romanian hermit, John Jacob, moved into one of them in 1953 and lived there until his death in 1960. His body lies in the monastery below.

Nearby

32 km