This article is about the spring. For the refugee camp, see Ein es-Sultan camp.
Ein es-Sultan is a natural spring in Jericho, at the site of ancient Jericho, which has been identified with the tell (archaeological mound) known as Tell es-Sultan.
Ein is Arabic for spring, sultan for ruler, king. Alternative spelling variants include 'ein, ain, 'ain, ayn, and 'ayn, and for the definite article el, al, and as.
History
The first permanent settlement built near ancient Jericho was at Tell es-Sultan, by the Ein es-Sultan spring, between 8000 and 7000 BC, and consisted of a number of walls, a religious shrine, and a 23-foot (7.0 m) tower with an internal staircase. After a few centuries, it was abandoned for a second settlement established in 6800 BC close by.[2]
To Jews and Christians, the Ein es-Sultan spring is known as the "Spring of Elisha", after the biblical story about its purification by the prophetElisha. The Byzantines built a domed church nearby dedicated to Saint Eliseus (Elisha in Greek).[1]
The Crusaders improved the water mills at Ein es-Sultan.[3]
In 2010, the spring saw the end of a year-long rehabilitation programme.[4] By 2000 a protective building which helps avoid contamination of the water had been erected over the spring, and by 2010 the rehabilitation included the old facilities, the preservation of archaeological remains, and landscaping works at the site for tourism purposes.[4] The Government of Italy led and financed the project, with support from the United Nations Development Programme-Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People (UNDP-PAPP), as part of an upgrading effort of water networks in Jericho and Hebron.[4]
Ring, Trudy; Salkin, Robert M.; Berney, K. A.; Schellinger, Paul E. (1994). International dictionary of historic places. Taylor & Francis. ISBN1-884964-03-6, ISBN978-1-884964-03-9. p. 367–370.
Michael Dumper, Bruce E. Stanley, Janet L. Abu-Lughod (2007). Cities of the Middle East and North Africa: A Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO, ISBN1-57607-919-8 p. 205.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Ein_es-Sultan, and is written by contributors.
Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.