HillgirtHeightsAdventures: The Hills around Ein Kerem

EIN KEREM

In a peaceful valley between mountains and hills is one of Jerusalem’s most picturesque villages - Ein Kerem.  It has charming stone houses adorned with arches, churches whose bells chime in the clear air and lovely paths paved with stone. Many of the stone walls have stood for 3000 years according to the host of our Air BnB abode.

Starting point of the trails

Looking up toward town from the gardens

Many fruit trees are being re-planted on the hillsides near town

Ein Kerem is a pilgrimage site for many Christian visitors, who come here year after year. According to Christian tradition, this is where Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, miraculously became pregnant. This is also where he was born. Allegedly, Elizabeth was visited by a family relative, Mary, who was also pregnant with Jesus. The two women met beside the village well and Mary drank from its cool waters. That place is now called Mary’s Spring. The village around the well grew and its waters are considered holy. Many pilgrims come to drink from the well and take the holy water away with them in bottles.  The spring was used to irrigate fruit trees centuries ago and has never run dry. Two of the churches here are named after John the Baptist, one Catholic and the other Greek Orthodox. Both were built in the late 19th century on the ruins of previous churches. The Catholic church has a grotto thought to be the birthplace of John the Baptist.

Mary's Spring at the site of the original well - many
tour buses bring students and tourists here daily

Aramaic ceremony with music and dancing next to Mary's Spring the night before
we left. Tours of the four Christian churches begin or end next to the spring.

The Church of the Visitation was built in 1955, on the foundations of a Crusader church built in the original location of the summer home where John the Baptist’s parents lived. The church is built around a large stone behind which Elizabeth hid John the Baptist from Herod’s soldiers, who were ordered to kill all children under the age of two. The Sisters of Zion Convent here was an orphanage and today it is home to nuns who run a modest hostel. The nearby Gorny Monastery, now a church, with its gold domes, is reached via a steep, winding path. All the walking tours in Ein Kerem start at the well. Signs now announce that the water is NOT drinkable but I don’t believe it!

The breathtaking beauty, the elegant simplicity and the charm of this place are especially pleasant in this conflict torn country. You can wander through the alleyways, enjoying every moment. Modern developments have not yet reached this scenic neighborhood, and recently the residents fought a battle against a construction project of a 4 story apartment building and won – much like the fight against high rises San Francisco. During our visit, a backhoe filled in the hole where the building was to be erected.