Editing Adummim

{{use British English|date= April 2021}}

{{hiero|ꜣ(j)tꜣmm<ref name = Gauthier114>{{cite book |last1=Gauthier |first1=Henri |title=Dictionnaire des Noms Géographiques Contenus dans les Textes Hiéroglyphiques Vol. 1 |date=1925 |page=[https://archive.org/details/Gauthier1925_1/page/n63 114] |url=https://archive.org/details/Gauthier1925_1}}</ref><ref name = Budge966>{{cite book |last1=Wallis Budge |first1=E. A. |title=An Egyptian hieroglyphic dictionary: with an index of English words, king list and geological list with indexes, list of hieroglyphic characters, Coptic and Semitic alphabets, etc. Vol II |date=1920 |publisher=[[John Murray (publishing house)|John Murray]] |page=[https://archive.org/details/egyptianhierogly02budguoft/page/966 966] |url=https://archive.org/details/egyptianhierogly02budguoft}}</ref>|<hiero>M17*U33*G17*G17</hiero>|era=nk|align=right}}

'''Adummim''' ({{langx|he|אֲדֻמִּים}}) is a place-name mentioned in the [[Hebrew Bible|biblical]] [[Book of Joshua]] in connection with the '''ascent of Adummim'''.

==Location==
Adummim was apparently on the road between [[Jerusalem]] and [[Jericho]] in the [[Judaean desert]], today in the [[West Bank]]. It is mentioned in the Book of Joshua ({{Bibleverse||Josh.|15:7|1000|15:7}}, {{Bibleverse||Josh.|18:17|1000|18:17}}) as being "on the south side of the stream", which Matthew Easton (1897) identified with [[Wadi Kelt]], and across from [[Gilgal]] or/and [[List of minor biblical places#Geliloth|Geliloth]].<ref name="easton">{{Cite encyclopedia |year=1897 |title=Adummim |encyclopedia=Illustrated Bible Dictionary |publisher=[[Thomas Nelson (publisher)|Thomas Nelson]] |url=http://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionaries/eastons-bible-dictionary/adummim.html |access-date=10 April 2021 |last=Easton |first=Matthew George |author-link=Matthew George Easton |edition=3rd |via=Bible Study Tools}}</ref> Easton claimed that it was nearly halfway between [[Jerusalem]] and [[Jericho]], and now bears the name of Tal'at ed-Dumm.<ref name=easton/> More recently, Pekka Pitkänen (2010) has stated that "The location of Adummim is unclear."<ref name="Pitkänen">{{Cite book |last=Pitkänen |first=Pekka |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q7tvG_w6uQEC&pg=PA288 |title=Joshua |date=19 October 2010 |publisher=InterVarsity Press |isbn=978-0-8308-2506-6 |page=288}}</ref>

The "ascent of Adummim" is a very important historical road that leads up from Jericho towards Jerusalem, following the top of a ridge that forms the southern bank of Wadi Qelt and separates it from Wadi Tal'at ad-Damm.<ref name=Bolen/><ref name="Wilkinson75">{{Cite journal |last=Wilkinson |first=John |date=March 1975 |title=The Way from Jerusalem to Jericho |journal=The Biblical Archaeologist |publisher=The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The American Schools of Oriental Research |volume=38 |issue=1 |page=14 |doi=10.2307/3209407 |jstor=3209407 |s2cid=165978577}}</ref>

==Name==
The name Adummim is related to {{lang|he|אָדֹם}} {{Transliteration|he|adom}}, the Hebrew word for "red", and can be translated as "red places", which may refer to the reddish streaks found in the stone of the area.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |year=1990 |title=Adummim |encyclopedia=Anchor Bible Dictionary |last=Thompson |first=Henry O. |editor-last=Freedman |editor-first=N. |volume=1 |pages=86–87}}</ref><ref name="Bolen">{{Cite web |last=Bolen |first=Todd |date=17 March 2004 |title=Jesus' Final Journey to Jerusalem |url=https://www.jerusalemperspective.com/1402/ |access-date=30 July 2019 |website=Jerusalem Perspective |publisher=Jerusalem School of Synoptic Research}}</ref> The red-brown hills of the area on the road descending from Jerusalem to Jericho are made of iron-oxide-tinged [[limestone]].<ref name="Shulman">{{Cite news |last=Shulman |first=David Dean |author-link=David Dean Shulman |date=25 June 2018 |title=The school at Khan al-Ahmar |url=http://mondoweiss.net/2018/06/school-khan-ahmar/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180625163917/http://mondoweiss.net/2018/06/school-khan-ahmar/ |archive-date=2018-06-25 |work=[[Mondoweiss]]}}</ref> The Ascent of Adummim was known as the "Ascent of Blood" by the Crusaders.<ref name=Barber/>

==Sources outside the Bible==
The name is attested in the [[Annals of Thutmose III]] at [[Temple of Karnak]] as '''Atamem''', which [[Auguste Mariette|Mariette]], [[Emmanuel de Rougé|Rougé]], [[Gaston Maspero|Maspero]], [[Max Müller|Müller]], [[Ludwig Borchardt|Borchardt]] and [[Wallis Budge|Budge]] identify with the biblical Adummim.<ref name= Gauthier114/><ref name= Budge966/>

==In Christianity==
It is supposed to have been the place referred to in the parable of the [[Good Samaritan]].<ref>{{Bibleverse||Luke|10:25-37|NIV}}</ref> The so-called [[Inn of the Good Samaritan]] has been named based on this assumption.

==Archaeological sites==
===St George's Monastery (Wadi Qelt)===
{{Main|Monastery of Saints John and George of Choziba}}
[[File:PikiWiki 34272 St. George Monastery in Wadi Qelt.jpg|thumb|St George's Monastery on the southern side of Wadi Qelt]]

A lavra established in the 420s in [[Wadi Qelt]] and reorganised as a monastery around the year 500 became known as [[Monastery of Saints John and George of Choziba|St George's Monastery]]. Rebuilt since the 19th century, it hangs spectacularly from the cliffs on the south side of the wadi, across from the ridge rising from the Plain of Jericho towards Jerusalem and known as the "ascent of Adummim".

===Inn of the Good Samaritan (Khan al-Hatruri)===
{{Main|Khan al-Hatruri}}
[[File:Good-Samaritan-Inn-656.jpg|thumb|The Good Samaritan Inn (Khan al-Hatruri, seldom: Khan al-Ahmar)]]

Another khan built along the Ascent of Adummim, the '''Good Samaritan Inn''', known in Arabic both as '''Khan al-Hatruri''',<ref>{{Cite web |title=Good Samaritan Inn |url=https://maps.google.com/maps?ll=31.817102,35.358873&spn=0.01,0.01&t=h&q=31.817102,35.358873 |website=Google Maps}}</ref> and sometimes, quite confusingly (see the other khan mentioned above), as '''Khan al-Ahmar''',<ref name="ATQ216">{{Cite web |date=27 July 1928 |title=ATQ/21/6 Letter to Deputy District Commissioner Jerusalem |url=http://www.iaa-archives.org.il/zoom/zoom.aspx?folder_id=13097&id=77455 |access-date=22 August 2019 |website=The Israel Antiquities Authority: The scientific Archive 1919-1948 |quote=It is reported to us on good authority that the people of Silwan claim ownership of this site upon which are the ruins of the monastery and church of St Euthymius situated a little to the South of the old road to Nabi Musa on a track branching from the road to Jericho at a point between the 13th and 14th kilometre stones. The place is known as the Khan al-Ahmar but is not to be confused with the Good Samaritan Inn known by the same name.}}</ref> stands {{convert|4|km}} east of the Highway 1-[[Route 417 (Israel–Palestine)|Route 417]] junction.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Jacobs |first1=Daniel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TRc9ea_CKOUC&pg=PA417 |title=Israel and the Palestinian Territories |last2=Eber |first2=Shirley |last3=Silvani |first3=Francesca |publisher=Rough Guides |year=1998 |isbn=978-1-85828-248-0 |pages=417–}}</ref> [[Eusebius]] mentions the Late Roman fort of Maledomni, whose traces have disappeared under the [[Knights Templar|Templar]] castle of Maldoim (see below).<ref name=OConnor/> Under the protection of the fortified place, a caravanserai was established.<ref name=OConnor/> In its present shape it was built in 1903.<ref name="OConnor">{{Cite book |last=Murphy-O'Connor |first=Jerome |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m3Yy9FDcT8gC&q=Maledomni&pg=PA113 |title=The Holy Land: An Oxford Archaeological Guide from Earliest Times to 1700 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-19-923666-4 |series=Oxford Archaeological Guides |location=Oxford |page=452 |access-date=30 July 2019}}</ref>

In the Early Byzantine period, there seems to have been a fortress at the site (4th-5th century), replaced in the 6th century by a square-shaped hostel, erected around a central courtyard, providing Christian pilgrims with rooms, water from a central cistern, and a large church for worship.<ref name=Parks/>

The recently restored complex holds a museum of mosaics excavated by Israeli archaeologists in the Palestinian areas, and a wing dedicated to the history and customs of the [[Samaritans]].<ref name="Parks">[https://www.parks.org.il/en/reserve-park/good-samaritan-museum/ The website of the "Good Samaritan Museum"]</ref>

====Templar castle of Maldoim====
Across the [[Highway 1 (Israel)|modern highway]] from the Inn of the Good Samaritan/Khan al-Hatruri,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Good Samaritan Museum |url=https://en.parks.org.il/ParksAndReserves/GoodSamaritanInn/Pages/default.aspx}}{{dead link|date=July 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Inn of the Good Samaritan |url=https://biblewalks.com/Sites/GoodSamaritanInn.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180428093807/https://biblewalks.com/Sites/GoodSamaritanInn.html |archive-date=2018-04-28 |website=BibleWalks.com}}</ref> are the archaeological remains of a medieval castle known to the [[Kingdom of Jerusalem|Crusaders]] as Maldoim, Adumim, or Rouge Cisterne / Cisterna Rubea (Red Cistern), among other names.<ref name=Pringle/> In Arabic it is known as Qal'at ad-Damm, "Blood Castle".<ref name=Pringle/> It was built by the [[Templars]] before 1169/72, probably at the site of a Late Roman fort, to protect the road between Jerusalem and Jericho.<ref name="Pringle">{{Cite book |last=Pringle |first=Denys |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-_NbE5obqRMC |title=Secular Buildings in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: An Archaeological Gazetteer |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1997 |isbn=9780521460101 |page=78 |chapter=Qal'at ad-Damm (No. 162) |access-date=30 July 2019}}</ref> It stands at the top of the "Ascent of Blood", as the Ascent of Adummim was known to the Crusaders.<ref name="Barber">{{Cite book |last=Barber |first=Malcolm |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5zkrDwAAQBAJ&pg=PR9 |title=The Military Orders Volume I: Fighting for the Faith and Caring for the Sick |publisher=Routledge |year=2017 |isbn=9781351542593 |edition=reprint |access-date=30 July 2019}}</ref>

===Monastery of St Euthymius (Khan al-Ahmar)===
{{main|Laura of Euthymius}}
[[File:Euthymius_Monastery1009_(9).jpg|thumb|Lavra of St. Euthymius, later Khan al-Ahmar]]

The [[Byzantine]] [[Laura of Euthymius|Monastery of St. Euthymius]], founded at first as a [[lavra]]-type monastic community by Saint [[Euthymius the Great]] in 420 along the Ascent of Adummim, played a major role in the development of desert monasticism in Palestine, and in the spread of [[Chalcedonian creed|Chalcedonian]] orthodoxy in the country after the [[Council of Chalcedon|451 Church Council]]. Fallen into ruin, it was rebuilt in the [[Kingdom of Jerusalem|Crusader period]], only to be abandoned again after its destruction at the beginning of the [[Mamluk Egypt|Mamluk period]] in the 13th century by Sultan [[Baybars]]. The structure was repurposed as a [[caravanserai]] or ''[[Khan (inn)|hhan]]'' for Muslim pilgrims travelling from Jerusalem to Mecca via the nearby shrine of [[Nabi Musa]], and became known as Khan al-Ahmar, the "Red [[Khan (inn)|Khan]]".

===Monastery of Martyrius===
{{Main|Monastery of Martyrius}}
[[File:PikiWiki_Israel_28406_Monastery_of_Martyrius.JPG|thumb|Mosaic floor of the [[refectory]], Monastery of Martyrius at Ma'ale Adummim]]

The [[Monastery of Martyrius]] (5th–7th century), excavated in the centre of Ma'ale Adummim at a site known in Arabic as Khirbet el-Murassas, was an important Byzantine centre of monastic life in the [[Judaean desert]].

==Other places in the area==
The area is accessible via Israel [[Highway 1 (Israel)|Highway 1]].
*[[Khan al-Ahmar (village)|Khan al-Ahmar]], Palestinian village named after the khan. A number of Bedouin encampments centered around a larger one are collectively known as Khan al-Ahmar.
*[[Ma'ale Adummim]], the largest [[Israeli settlement]] in the West Bank, and its industrial park, [[Mishor Adummim]], were named after biblical Adummim

==See also==
*[[Cities in the Book of Joshua]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{EBD|wstitle=Adummim}}

{{Crusader sites}}

[[Category:Hebrew Bible places]]