Overview

Bibliography

Khan al-Ahmar is the site of the monastery of Euthymius, one of the most important Judean monasteries during the monastic movement during the Byzantine period. It is located off the heavily traveled road from Jericho to Jerusalem. Founded in 428, the monastery flourished as a laura during the lifetime of Euthymius. Euthymius died in 473 and was buried in the monastery. After his death, the monastery was converted into a coenobium in 482, and slowly began to diminish in importance. Much of the monastery was destroyed during the earthquake of 659, and was rebuilt shortly thereafter. In 1150, the monastery underwent extensive restoration and rebuilding. Thus, the monastery gives evidence of construction from the Byzantine period through the Crusader period.

The monastery was first excavated by D. Chitty from 1927-1930 for the British School of Archaeology. Unfortunately, only his preliminary reports were published. The site was excavated again in the 1970s by Y. Meimaris, and in 1987 by Y. Hirschfeld and R. Birger-Calderon. The monastery has subsequently be cleared and preserved for tourism.

Khan al-Ahmar was not open to the public when the VWP team visited the site in 2004. We were granted only a few minutes to photograph the site while the preservation work continued, and some parts of the site were off limits.