An ancient tradition says that right there, on a site on the western bank of the Jordan called Qasr al-Yahud (the castle of the Jews), Jesus received baptism, making this place very important for almost all the Christian Confessions of the Eastern Churches. However, not all scholars agree on the identification of the place, some in fact refer to a location called Yardenit (a site already widely exploited by Israel), a place where Abraham's children crossed the Jordan to enter the land of Canaan, while other theologians still place the baptismal place on the other side of the river in Jordanian territory in the locality called al-Maghtas (baptism, or immersion in Arabic) making the latter hypothesis, of course, the most welcome to the Kingdom of Jordan (Al- Maghtas had the honor of visiting two popes: John Paul II in March 2000 and Benedict XVI in May 2009).

 

Starting in the 1980s, the state of Israel began to allow small groups, escorted by the army to reach the place on pilgrimage thanks to the opening of a small passage in the minefield, but it is after Peace agreements signed in 1994 that the site has started to become an increasingly popular destination for pilgrim tourists. In 2011, thanks to the demining of other portions of land and the beginning of some renovations, the Qasr al-Yahud site was open to all, with positive effects for the economy of the area. The site is owned by the Israeli Ministry of Tourism. Dozens of coaches of pilgrims arriving to Qasr al-Yahud every day intend to dive into the sacred waters of the Jordan.

 

To access the site, pilgrim tourists are forced to cross a kind of ghost citadel made up of ruins of churches and sacred buildings destroyed during the war (also mined afterward) and to follow a compulsory path delimited by barbed wire and scattered everywhere by disturbing signs warning of the presence of mines. Recently, in order to facilitate the flow of tourists and the increase in accommodation for tourists money (an estimated 300,000