Before I went to Palestine, I couldn’t imagine exactly what kind of place I would encounter. I always dreamed of a place similar to Nicosia. A high-walled, wire-fenced border would pass through the middle of Jerusalem. In the middle is a passage gate. I always dreamed of a place guarded by dozens of soldiers, where security and visa screening takes place for hours, and where you have to do forty somersaults to get through the door. We arrived in Jerusalem with the car we rented from Tel Aviv, with a journey of just over 1 hour. As I approached the border drawn on the map according to the 1949 treaty, I felt a slight excitement, wondering what would happen now. A soldier with a G3 in his hand was waiting in the middle of the road near the Damascus Gate of the Old City. Without questioning the bus in front of us, he lifted the pontoon from the road and put it aside. As we continued following the bus, he approached us and asked where we were going. Leyla said simply, “To our hotel.” Without even saying who he was or what he was, he lifted the pontoon and made a sign with his hand. It was so easy for us to enter Palestine. Then, as I wandered around, I realized that there was no Palestinian State in practice anyway. However you take it; Whether you see it as the territory occupied by Israel or the territory of the independent State of Palestine, what I see is that almost the entire West Bank is under “de facto” (in practice) Israeli control. Many Israelis consider it the Israeli provinces of Judea, Samaria and Benjamin, and feel that it is their historical right to settle in these “Holy Lands”. Palestinians, on the other hand, see this place as the land of the Free State of Palestine. I will write about how I saw this situation there, on my way to Jericho. (First of all, I will share the link of the map I prepared for myself so that you can better understand the geography: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=zZFFS3ph-SXs.ktmArqd0tt-8) After staying one night in Jerusalem, take a 1-minute drive. We started heading east on highway no. The roads are like flowers; 3 lane highway. Same as in Israel. I guess the State of Israel did it. Because the first language on the signs is still Hebrew. By the way, almost all signs in Israel are already trilingual; Hebrew, Arabic, English. Our phone line we bought from Israel has full coverage without any problems, and on the radio, there is not even any hissing in the Hebrew and English broadcasts, they receive very clear reception. We decided to use the old Roman road in the Celtic Valley to reach Jericho, perhaps the oldest known city in the world (11,000 years old), so we turned off the highway and started our adventure in the Judean Desert. Our first stop here is St. It was George’s Monastery. This is a Greek Orthodox monastery that has been actively used since the 4th century. It was destroyed by the Persians in 614, the Crusaders wanted to restore it in 1178, and it was restored in 1901 by a Greek monk who settled here in 1878. While we were driving along the old Roman road, we suddenly saw something like a door on our right. There were 7-8 Druze sellers in front of him. The asphalt road ahead was suddenly deteriorating a lot. We had to stop. The GPS said we had arrived, but there was no signboard in English or anything resembling a monastery around. Suddenly, all the salesmen surrounded the car. Frankly, it was a little scary. Frankly, it frightened us to be suddenly surrounded by a lot of vendors in the middle of the desert, in a place where there was no sign of civilization, no people, and probably no rules. While I was wondering whether to get out of the car or not, I went downstairs in a rush. While they were saying “Hello” or something like that, I burst out “Salamun aleykum”. Of course, I felt a little relieved when I heard “Aleykum Selam” right away. After saying “Where are you from? Istanbul, Akşam Karadayı is a very good TV series, my nephew is also in Turkey” and so on, they said that the monastery is in the valley parallel to the road, it can be reached in 20 minutes on foot, and the viewing terrace is 3 minutes away. I asked the man named Ali if he would accompany us and he accompanied us to the observation deck. Actually, I was intending to get into it, but my wife did not want to because of the fright she felt a few minutes ago. To be honest, I didn’t insist too much. Although, I said, “You don’t have to be afraid, if anything happens, I will beat all 8 of them at the same time.” And since he only gave me a silent look in response, I realized that I wasn’t very convincing. When we saw the valley and the monastery from the observation deck, we said “Wow, it’s beautiful” (my wife is from Keşan, by the way). When it was time to leave, I couldn’t decide at first whether we would continue on the same path. The road looked rough, but Ali said that the road would be smooth again after a few meters, and it was. As we entered our first city in Palestine (other than Jerusalem), we experienced another shock. Two giant red signs on both sides read: “From this point on, the State of Israel is not responsible for the life safety of Israeli citizens.” We stopped for a moment and thought. Well, what about us! We said, “We are not Israelis anyway,” and continued on our way. Our next stop was the Plane Tree of Jericho, which was right on our way. As it is written in the Bible, “Zacchaeus, the rich tax collector who wanted to see Jesus while he was passing through Jericho, could not see him because he was short and climbed to the top of this tree.” It was one of the essential points of our trip. We took photos in front of it and passed by. Then we passed in front of the Jericho Cable Car and arrived at Hisham Palace, a desert castle. This palace was built by the 10th Umayyad Caliph Hisham Bin Abdul Malik in the first half of the 8th century. This is one of the most important buildings in Palestine from an archaeological point of view. The fact that the decoration of the building is against traditions and is influenced by Persian culture means that the building is actually Hisham’s nephew, the best poet of the Umayyads, a strong drinker, a man of pleasure, the 11th Caliph II. It suggests that it may have been built by Velid. The palace was destroyed by an earthquake in 747 before it was completed. Entry is 10 Israeli Shekels. Let me state right away that Palestine does not have its own currency. Israeli Shekel is frequently used. Of course, Egyptian and Jordanian currencies are also accepted. After Hisham Palace, we returned to where we came from and went to the Sultan Tumulus (Tell Es-Sultan), right across from the cable car. This is the oldest and lowest (Altitude: -258) city in the world mentioned in the Bible, that is, ancient Jericho. These ruins, dating back to the Neolithic age, are located opposite a water source called Ain Es-Sultan, and it is the first city in human history and the first city wall system was established in this city. This ancient city, which has 23 layers, is on the “UNESCO Tentative List”. After wandering around the ancient city for a while, we realized that it was time to go up by cable car. After buying our cable car tickets, we went up the stairs towards the cable car. A surprise awaited us when we saw the cable car management office. A Turkish flag was hanging on the door. As soon as I saw it, I immediately headed there, knocked on the door and entered. There were three dark-skinned men inside. “Do you speak Turkish?” I asked excitedly. I thought the owner of the business was probably Turkish. The men looked at me with astonishment, “What is he saying?” When I saw his expression, I realized that the men were Arabs. Then I asked in English why they were hanging the Turkish flag. They love Turkey very much. We took the cable car and went up to the top of Mount Temptation, where Jesus did not obey the devil. Here, 350 meters above the ground, is the Qarantal Monastery, which is also a Greek Orthodox monastery. After being baptized, Jesus comes to the caves on this mountain and starves there for 40 days and 40 nights. Throughout this process, the devil constantly appears to him and tries to seduce him. Jesus resists all these temptations and eventually the devil leaves and the other angels bring food to Jesus. Although the first monastery was built by the Byzantines in the 6th century, the current monastery was built in 1895. When we entered the monastery, a slightly bearded man in casual clothes welcomed us. I forgot his name, but I chatted with him for about an hour while he showed us around the monastery. He came here from Kos Island for a few months. He said that the real name of the monastery was “40” (Quarantana), which corresponded to Jesus’ 40 days of hunger in the caves here. He even took us into one of the caves. When I told him that we would go to the place where Jesus was baptized when we left here, he said, “Are you going to go to Jordan?” he asked. The place where Jesus was baptized was the Jordan River, but according to my research, it could be reached from both countries. When I said, “No, we will enter from Israel,” he gave us a surprised look. After saying goodbye to him, we went down again by cable car and got our car. The Turkish flag was hanging on the door of the souvenir shop where we bought the car, but this time I walked past it to avoid having the same conversation again. We had run out of places to visit in Jericho city centre. Next was the Place of Christ’s Baptism, the Jordan River. While driving out of the city, I noticed that all the grocery stores we saw in the city had the “Coca Cola” emblem on their signs. When I think about the people in our country who do not drink “Coca Cola” to protest Israel, the situation seems very ironic to me. After a few minutes of driving, we saw the turnoff for the Baptism of Jesus on the main road and turned off. Not long after we left, a border control gate appeared. Frankly, after what the man said, I wasn’t exactly sure. Could we see this place without leaving Israel or did we have to go to Jordan? Frankly, we did not dare to go because our visa was for single entry. More precisely, we did not want to waste time since there was a lot of room on the remaining route of the day. We continued our journey by visiting the Baptismal Place of Jesus. I later learned that you couldn’t cross into Jordan from there even if you wanted to, because the border gate, the Allenby Bridge, is further north. It was just a routine checkpoint. Our last point near Jericho was the Hugala Monastery, just on the road. This monastery is attributed to Gerasimus of Jordan. Gerasimus was born in Lycia, that is, Anatolia, as the child of a wealthy family. Afterwards, he gives up all his family wealth and hits the deserts. He comes to the Jordanian border and establishes a monastery for himself here. He lived here until his death in 475. He is a Christian figure famous for his story of removing the thorn from the lion’s foot and taming it. Another story about this monastery is; While escaping from Herod, Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus take shelter in a cave here and spend a night. There is now a small underground chapel in this cave. After our visit here, we are now moving away from Jericho and heading towards the Dead Sea. There is a very famous ancient city on the shores of the Dead Sea, also within the Palestinian territories; Qumran Caves. Its story is as follows: The year is 1947. While wandering around these caves, a shepherd finds several scrolls, later called the Dead Sea Scrolls. B.C. 2nd century to A.D. These scrolls, dating back to 68 BC, provide valuable information about the history of Judaism and early Christianity. In fact, it has even led to the birth of a new branch of science in universities under the name of “Cumranic Studies”. You can see these scrolls in the “Shrine Of Book” section of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. In front of the caves, there are ruins of the old city. It is believed that this is the “City of Salt” mentioned in the Bible. This city, which is on UNESCO’s “Tentative” list, is not under Palestinian control but is under the Israeli National Parks Department. After a nice tour of this place, we finished the places we wanted to visit in Jericho. Of course, our trip did not end there. Then, after swimming in the Dead Sea in Ein Gedi (Israel), and then getting ourselves covered in mud, we visited Masada, another UNESCO-protected city. I will end the article here in order to talk about them in another article, and I wish you all well-being. Mavimore Turizm is a travel agency registered with TÜRSAB. Document number: A-8307