Adummim

St George's Monastery on the southern side of Wadi Qelt

A lavra established in the 420s in Wadi Qelt and reorganised as a monastery around the year 500 became known as St George's Monastery. Rebuilt since the 19th century, it hangs spectacularly from the cliffs on the south side of the wadi, across from the ridge rising from the Plain of Jericho towards Jerusalem and known as the "ascent of Adummim".

The Good Samaritan Inn (Khan al-Hatruri, seldom: Khan al-Ahmar)

Another khan built along the Ascent of Adummim, the Good Samaritan Inn, known in Arabic both as Khan al-Hatruri,[11] and sometimes, quite confusingly (see the other khan mentioned above), as Khan al-Ahmar,[12] stands 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) east of the Highway 1-Route 417 junction.[13] Eusebius mentions the Late Roman fort of Maledomni, whose traces have disappeared under the Templar castle of Maldoim (see below).[14] Under the protection of the fortified place, a caravanserai was established.[14] In its present shape it was built in 1903.[14]

In the Early Byzantine period, there seems to have been a fortress at the site (4th-5th century), replaced in the 6th century by a square-shaped hostel, erected around a central courtyard, providing Christian pilgrims with rooms, water from a central cistern, and a large church for worship.[15]

The recently restored complex holds a museum of mosaics excavated by Israeli archaeologists in the Palestinian areas, and a wing dedicated to the history and customs of the Samaritans.[15]

Across the modern highway from the Inn of the Good Samaritan/Khan al-Hatruri,[16][17] are the archaeological remains of a medieval castle known to the Crusaders as Maldoim, Adumim, or Rouge Cisterne / Cisterna Rubea (Red Cistern), among other names.[18] In Arabic it is known as Qal'at ad-Damm, "Blood Castle".[18] It was built by the Templars before 1169/72, probably at the site of a Late Roman fort, to protect the road between Jerusalem and Jericho.[18] It stands at the top of the "Ascent of Blood", as the Ascent of Adummim was known to the Crusaders.[9]

Lavra of St. Euthymius, later Khan al-Ahmar

The Byzantine Monastery of St. Euthymius, founded at first as a lavra-type monastic community by Saint Euthymius the Great in 420 along the Ascent of Adummim, played a major role in the development of desert monasticism in Palestine, and in the spread of Chalcedonian orthodoxy in the country after the 451 Church Council. Fallen into ruin, it was rebuilt in the Crusader period, only to be abandoned again after its destruction at the beginning of the Mamluk period in the 13th century by Sultan Baybars. The structure was repurposed as a caravanserai or hhan for Muslim pilgrims travelling from Jerusalem to Mecca via the nearby shrine of Nabi Musa, and became known as Khan al-Ahmar, the "Red Khan".

Mosaic floor of the refectory, Monastery of Martyrius at Ma'ale Adummim

The Monastery of Martyrius (5th–7th century), excavated in the centre of Ma'ale Adummim at a site known in Arabic as Khirbet el-Murassas, was an important Byzantine centre of monastic life in the Judaean desert.