Jordan’s biblical sites

PETRA, Jordan — Enthusiasm flows from Rustom Mkhjian like the stream of holy water his team of archaeologists christened John the Baptist Spring. What’s enlightening about this discovery, hailed as one of the most significant archaeological and religious finds of modern time, is that I am standing in the kingdom of Jordan — in the long-lost settlement of Bethany Beyond the Jordan where John the Baptist converted untold numbers while preparing for the coming and eventual baptism of Jesus Christ.

“Some people still think Jordan is a small town in Montana,” Akel Biltaji, an adviser to King Abdullah II, tells me, “but we share with others the Holy Land.”

Giving his trowel a rest, Mr. Mkhjian, a supervisor of archaeological works for the Jordanian Department of Antiquities, leads me into the shade of John’s recently resurrected grotto on the banks of Jordan River.

He sifts through considerable biblical text and archaeological discourse before pointing to a specific patch of sandy ground at the base of some newly excavated steps.

“There is no doubt whatsoever in my mind, based on religious records and all the supporting evidence we’ve uncovered here, that this is the very spot — right here at the bottom of the steps — where Jesus was baptized,” he says.

That would make this particular excavation — one of more than a dozen within the grotto that reveal arches and walls, marble and mosaic floors — the ruins of Bethabara, a church built about 500 years after Jesus’ death to commemorate His exact baptismal place.

“This site is a child now,” Mr. Mkhjian stresses. “Let our work progress; you will see.”

So why, after all these years, is Bethany Beyond the Jordan and all that has been buried beneath it only seeing the light of day now?

Until the 1994 peace treaty with Israel, Jordan’s military was dug in where this team of archaeologists digs today. From their vantage point along the east bank of the Jordan River — here no wider than Rock Creek in Washington — the soldiers kept a wary eye on Israeli troops posted less than a stone’s throw away on the opposite shore.

The only evidence today of those turbulent years is a rusting minesweeper at the grotto’s entrance, although Mr. Mkhjian assures me all explosives have long since been removed.

This site was opened to the public with much fanfare in 2000. In the past year, the Greek Orthodox Church opened a beautiful shrine here, and Catholics aren’t far behind with their own church (not to be confused with the grotto’s Church of John Paul II, a partially restored chapel dating to the fifth century and named for the late pontiff after his visit and blessing of the site in March 2000).

Bethany Beyond the Jordan also has a new visitors center and restaurant near well-marked trails leading to the excavations. Wouldn’t Jesus’ followers have been surprised to have known that about 2,000 years distant, a heliport would be constructed here to whisk world leaders and other VIPs to His baptismal place? John the Baptist, too, would be thrilled to see that baptisms have resumed in his ancient grotto. The going, however, hasn’t been easy.

After welcoming a record number of visitors during the late 1990s, Jordan’s tourism industry, like that in much of the Middle East, took a major hit in the wake of September 11. Next came the wars in neighboring Iraq and in Afghanistan, and suddenly tourism plummeted. The country’s precarious position on the world map hasn’t helped matters: Jordan is sandwiched between Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Palestinian territories.

I was apprehensive about coming here, but not once during my 10-day journey have I felt unsafe. Most Jordanians I encounter go out of their way to say how much the tourists are missed, especially Americans.

“You cannot have tourism without security,” Mr. Mkhjian tells me, “and the Jordanian government sees to it that we have that.”

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