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Pilgrimage in the Holy Land

St John Phocas, tr. Stewart, 1889

Chapter 20

After this comes a long, narrow, and very rough road, leading to the back of the wilderness, before you come to which you see in the midst of it two mountains, between which the road to Jericho passes: on this road there is no stone pavement, but, nevertheless, the outline of it can be faintly traced; but, at the present day, all the neighbouring country abounds with springs of water for the use of the monasteries which have been founded in the wilderness, for the land, having been divided and parcelled out among these holy monasteries, has become well wooded and full of vines; so that the monks have built towers upon their fields, and reap rich harvests from them. The appearance of the whole desert, and Jordan, and the Dead Sea of Sodom, according to my conjecture, is much like that of Achris,¹ with only this difference, that water flows out of the Lake at Achris and waters many of the surrounding valleys, which are called strougas by the inhabitants, while here the Jordan flows into the lake. Moreover, the width of the wilderness is many times as great as that of the plain of Achris.

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