Fountain of the Apostles
On the morning of April 25, 1894, the writer and his company rose early and prepared for the journey to Jericho and the Dead Sea. Passing Bethany, about two miles east of Jerusalem, we rode down the steep hill into the valley. Two miles beyond Bethany, at the bottom of this valley, by the roadside, is the fountain popularly called “The Fountain of the Apostles,” but the real name is “The Sunny Spring.” The Arabs call it Ain ’Haud, and sometimes Ain ’Shems. This is supposed to be the Enshemesh, one of the border marks which point out the boundary line between the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. Near to the fountain is a khan. Being Easter Week of the Greek Church, we found a great number of people at this fountain. “The situation of a khan usually remains the same for countless generations when it is in the vicinity of a spring of living water.” There is a tradition that Christ, our Lord, on His last journey to Jerusalem rested here awhile, telling His disciples that He was going up to Jerusalem to be betrayed and crucified. At this fountain we were furnished a guard by the sheik, whose headquarters are in the low stone structure you see just beside the road to the left of the picture. This sheik levies tribute upon all who pass over this way to Jericho. Our dragoman told us that Thomas Cook & Son pay five dollars to this sheik as a license for every party conducted through this territory. It is pretended that there are robbers between this point and Jericho, in this wilderness of Judea, and that travelers are not safe unless they have a guard. The truth probably is that this is a species of blackmail levied by this old robber in order to replenish the treasury of himself and family.
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