WADI Al-KHARRAR, Jordan -- In the midst of green hills and springs in the Jordan Valley, archaeologists have unearthed what they say is the real site of the baptism of Jesus Christ, instead of the traditional spot on the Israeli-controlled western shore of the Jordan River.
"This is where Jesus was baptized," insisted Tourism Minister Aqel Biltaji during a recent visit to the site. "This is where John the Baptist lived. This is where the first Christian community on earth emerged."Biltaji and a team of Jordanian archaeologists are convinced the site is the biblical "Bethany beyond the Jordan" recorded in the Gospel of John. Their claim has sparked a friendly cross-border dispute on whether Jesus was baptized on the eastern or western shore of the river.
Israel has long held that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist at Qasir al-Yahud, a West Bank area just north of the Dead Sea that is still under Israeli military control.
Pope John Paul II is expected to visit the Jordanian site during an upcoming weeklong tour of holy places in Jordan, Israel and the West Bank scheduled to start March 20. Jordanian officials interpret the Pope's plans as implicit confirmation that their site is where Jesus was baptized, but the Vatican has not taken a position on either side's claim.
The Vatican has added Bethany to a list of sites that Christian pilgrims could visit to celebrate the new millennium, but that declaration that fell short of any outright acknowledgment that the area is the baptism site.
Vassilios Tzaferis, head of the excavations department in the Israel Antiquities Authority, says there is no proof for either claim.
"Archaeologically speaking, we don't have any real evidence," he says. "Pilgrims are connected by faith, religion and dogmas. You either believe it or you don't."
Roman Catholic Monsignor Raouf Najjar of Amman believes Jordan's version.
"Nobody can contest that the real site of baptism is across the Jordan River on the eastern side," says Najjar, an assistant to Jerusalem Bishop Michel Sabbah.
The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities sponsored celebrations at the site in early January to mark the millennium and the Eastern Christmas. More than 20,000 Jordanians representing the country's 10 Christian sects sang Christmas carols and beat drums in Wadi al-Kharrar on Jan. 7.
The government also issued coins and Christmas cards depicting John pouring water over the head of a kneeling Christ with the maxim: "Jordan the Land of Baptism." Souvenir shops are selling for two dinars ($3) tiny bottles said to contain "holy water" from the Jordan River.
Jordan is also building a guest house and paving roads to the site, a development costing an estimated at $7 million. Much of the money came from the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Biltaji, the tourism minister, says Jordan is seeking to win its share of millennium tourism. He expects a 20 percent increase in tourists this year over the estimated 1.2 million a year.
But that optimism could be dampened by the recent arrest in Jordan of 14 Muslim militants suspected of planning terrorist attacks on the baptism and other tourist sites in the kingdom -- an affair that prompted a U.S. travel advisory to the region over the millennium holidays.
The area's long-neglected infrastructure has helped preserve the holy site, which falls on the frontier with Israel in a minefield cleared following the 1994 peace treaty with Israel.
Excavations at the site began in 1996 when mine-clearing established the existence of a Christian settlement in hills overlooking springs which feed the valley. Preliminary research suggested the settlement was contemporary with Jesus Christ.
Archaeologists focus on the calm, fresh water of those springs, 700 meters away from the Jordan River, not the fast-flowing waters of the river itself, although tradition has it Jesus was baptized in the river.
The archaeologists believe the geography of the site remains much as it was 2,000 years ago.
They have discovered remains of a settlement on a 2-square-kilometer (less than one square mile) area at Tell al-Kharrar, a hill that rises out of the reed beds of the Jordan Valley and stoops toward the Jordan River, five kilometers (7 miles) north of the Dead Sea.
So far, archaeologists have unearthed the remains of a Byzantine monastery, 10 churches -- some with mosaic floors bearing Greek inscriptions -- and two natural caves identified as hermit grottos.
Also found was a system of water pipes and ducts to carry water to four plaster-lined shallow pools believed to have been used for baptism when the site rapidly grew into an early pilgrimage center.
"From this hill, the Prophet Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven on a chariot of fire and horses of fire," roared Mohammad Waheeb, the chief archaeologist at the site, pointing at Tell al-Kharrar as he read from the Old Testament.
Rami Khoury, a renowned writer on Jordan's archaeological heritage, says Byzantine texts and pilgrims accounts as early as the 4th century mention the hill at Bethany east of the Jordan River as the site where Elijah ascended to heaven.
"Perhaps that is why John the Baptist lived and baptized there, for the personalities, lifestyles and missions of John and Elijah are frequently associated in the New Testament," Khoury wrote recently in The Jordan Times.
Waheeb, a Muslim widely known as "Father Mohammad" for his profound knowledge in the Bible, said manuscripts from the 11th century refer to the Byzantine churches and pools as being built in the third or early fourth century upon orders from Helena, the mother of Constantine, the first Christian emperor.
In a forested lot near the river, at least three churches were built successively on top of each other. All three were destroyed by flood of the once unruly Jordan River as well as a deadly earthquake that hit the area in 749 A.D., says Rusfom Mkhjian, an engineer responsible for the restoration of the site.
"The persistence to build churches one on top of the other presents yet another proof that this was a holy site, the spot where St. John lived and baptized," Waheeb says.