With 212,000 visitors, more people than ever visited the “Al-Maghtas” site on the Jordanian bank of the Jordan River, revered as the site of Jesus' baptism, in 2023. Despite a drastic decline in visitor numbers with the start of the Gaza War, is the best year since the website opened, reports the Arab-Christian portal “Abouna”.
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The site's general director, Rustom Mkhjian, said the war had also affected tourism in Jordan, although the country remained a safe travel destination. Compared to the previous year, the number of visitors to the baptism site increased by 36 percent. According to the report, a good third of visitors come from Italy and France. The largest proportion of Arab visitors came from Lebanon, while local visitors from Jordan accounted for around six percent of the number of visitors.
More modest celebrations due to the war
The festival of the “Baptism of the Lord”, for which thousands of local pilgrims from all parts of the country traditionally make a pilgrimage to Al-Maghtas on the second Friday of January, will be more modest this year in respect of the victims of the war, of according to a request from the Catholic News Agency (KNA) of ecclesiastical circles.
According to the Catholic Media Center in Amman, the tradition of the Jordan River pilgrimage was reestablished in the anniversary year of 2000. Since then, with the support of King Abdullah II of Jordan, the site has been greatly expanded and several churches of various denominations Were build. Since 2002, the site has offered guided tours to visitors. In 2015, Al-Maghtas was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Planned expansion
Further expansion of the site is planned. As part of a project costing around 280 million euros, almost 138 hectares of land will be developed around the baptism site. The objective is to improve service to pilgrims and visitors to the site. Most recently, an international, interfaith advisory board was created in October 2020 to oversee expansion. Advisory board members include the Dalai Lama, Chinese businessman Jack Ma and New Zealand director and actor Sir Peter Jackson.
(kap/kna -sst)