Mount of Temptation, in Palestinian Arabic Jebel Quruntul (Arabic: جبل لقرنطل), is a mountain over the city of Jericho in the West Bank, in the State of Palestine; ancient Christian tradition identifies it as the location of the temptation of Jesus described in the New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, in which it is said that, from "a high place", the Devil offered Jesus rule over all the kingdoms of the world.

[10] As the second temptation in Luke and the third in Matthew, from "a high mountain" (εἰς ὄρος ὑψηλὸν, eis óros hypsēlòn), the Devil offered Jesus "all the kingdoms of the world" (πάσας τὰς βασιλείας τοῦ κόσμου, pásas tàs basileías toû kósmou,[11] or τῆς οἰκουμένης, tē̂s oikouménēs).

In the Synoptic Gospels of the Christian Bible, after his baptism by John in the River Jordan, Jesus is said to have been driven by the Spirit into the "wilderness", where he fasted for 40 days and 40 nights before being tempted by the "devil"[28][29] or "Satan".

[29] A separate tradition recorded in John Phocas's Ecphrasis, a 12th-century pilgrimage report, was that one of the tells at the base of the mount once held a temple commemorating the location where Joshua supposedly saw the archangel Michael (KJV).

[31] Jebel Quruntul is a limestone peak controlling the main paths from Jerusalem and Ramallah to Jericho and the River Jordan since antiquity,[32] possibly the same as the "desert road" (דרך המדבר, derech hamidbar) mentioned in Joshua 8:15 & 20:31 and Judges 20:42.

[45] Relatively peaceful coexistence of Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the area[45] ended in the 11th century with al-Hakim's persecutions, the invasions of the Seljuks, and the onset of the First Crusade.

In 1143, this income was valued equivalent to 5,000 aurei (45.2 lb or 20.5 kg of gold) per year and was transferred from the monks to the Sisters of Bethany by Queen Melisende of Jerusalem.

[46] Around the same time,[42] the Knights Templar constructed a small but formidable fortification on the mountaintop, storing water in Hellenistic cisterns[3] and caches of weapons and supplies in the mountain's caves.

[3] The order's Hierarchical Statutes from the 1170s or early 1180s charged the Commander at Jerusalem to always have ten knights available to reinforce the route past Jebel Quruntul and to protect and supply any noblemen who might travel it.

Around the same time, Theodoric's Little Book reported that at least a few Templars or Hospitallers accompanied any group of pilgrims along the route[14] against any local bandits or Bedouin raids.

They had long forbidden Europeans to come near, but some of the Christian bishops in Palestine finally worked out an arrangement to pay them 10 silver kuruşlar a year for safe passage, after which pilgrims were again permitted to climb to the grotto and the top of the mountain with a local guide.

Van Egmond noted the Fathers of the Holy Sepulchre he traveled with continued to believe the ruined chapel at the Grotto of the Temptation had been personally established by St Helena but its construction did not seem nearly so ancient to his eyes.

[42][dubious – discuss] Following World War I, Britain's League of Nations mandate over Palestine saw modern irrigation systems introduced to the area around Jericho, which prospered as a center of fruit harvesting.

[3] In 1998,[44] during the period of relative peace following the Oslo Accords, Palestinian businessman Marwan Sinokrot constructed a 1,330 m (4,360 ft) 12-cabin cable car from the ruins of ancient Jericho to the Greek monastery, capable of carrying up to 625 people an hour[50] in preparation for an expected influx of tourists during the millennium celebrations of the year 2000.

Religious tourism makes up over 60% of Jericho's total visitors[44] (estimated at 300,000 people per year in 2015),[51] and the aerial lift cut the time to reach the monastery from as long as 90 minutes to as little as 5.

[44] The company secured recognition from the Guinness Book of World Records as "the longest cable car aerial tramway below sea level"[52] but the Second Intifada began shortly thereafter, again limiting tourism in the area.

Jebel Quruntul, its fortress, and its monastery form part of the El-Bariyah "Wilderness" area proposed for World Heritage status in 2012[54] and were included in the Jericho Oasis Archaeological Park established with Italian help in 2014.

[6] Artifacts from the Bar Kokhba Revolt include various pottery vessels, glassware, a Roman oil lamp, a bronze ring, a comb, textile fragments, leather sandals, and a needle.

[6] An account of Christ's Temptation under the name "Mount Quarantania" forms part of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem Christus: A Mystery.

A local Arab tradition placed it as late as the 19th century at the lower peak of 'Ushsh el-Ghurab at the northern end of the Jericho Plain, separated from the Mount of Temptation by the valley known as Wadi ed-Duyuk.

[58][59] Another tradition recorded in Ernoul's 13th-century chronicle placed the Devil's offer of dominion over the kingdoms of the world at Mount Precipice just south of Nazareth, where Jesus was separately said to have disappeared from a crowd[60] during one of his rejections by the Jewish community of his time.