Meet your guide at your Tel-Aviv hotel, and travel into the Judean Desert, passing the Good Samaritan Inn along the way, and pausing to take in the stunning, arid landscape. Arrive in the historic city of Jericho, where Joshua and the Israelite army lay siege to the city with the Ark of the Covenant. Enter the Tel e Sultan, a UNESCO site that’s the oldest town in the world, built far below sea level by a perennial spring. Visit the sycamore fig tree that Zacchaeus climbed to see Jesus above the crowds, then hear the story of the Mount of Temptation, the legendary site where the devil tempted Jesus after his 40-day fast in the desert.
Continue to Bethlehem to follow the story of Christ’s birth in the 4th-century Church of the Nativity and Manger Square, and learn about the city’s rich religious history. Get a shepherd’s-eye view of the city as you pass through the fields around Bethlehem, and finish your day with return transfer to your Tel-Avid hotel.
