The pilgrimage to Mount Nebo, where Moses died.
The pilgrim Egeria, is the best guide for a pilgrimage to Mount Nebo. The latin text of her pilgrimage dated to 384 AD was found in 1884 at Arezzo, Italy. She relates in great detail her journey to Mount Nebo.

"Some time went by. Then, impelled by God, I conceived the desire to go once more into Arabia, to Mount Nebo. It is the mountain which God told Moses to climb, in the words «Ascend this mountain Araboth, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab over opposite Jericho; and view the land of Canaan, which I give to the people of Israel as their possession; and die on the mountain which you ascend». And Jesus our God, who never fails those who hope in him, saw fit to grant my desire.

With us came some holy men from Jerusalem, a presbyter and deacons, and several brothers (monks), and we reached the place on the Jordan where holy Joshua the son of Nun sent the children of Israel across, and they passed over, as we are told in the Book of Joshua the son of Nun. We were also shown a slightly raised place on the Jericho stretch of the river, where the children of Reuben and Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh made an altar."

After crossing the Jordan river, the pilgrim stopped in Livias, the reference point for those who wished to visit the nearby sanctuaries connected with Moses, which the pilgrim Theodosius thus summarizes: 'the water made to flow from the rock, the place of Moses's death and the hot springs of Moses where lepers come to be cured'.

She writes:

"After crossing the river we came to the city of Livias, in the plain where the children of Israel encamped in those days. The foundations of the camp and dwellings of the Israelites are still to be seen there today.

It is a vast plain stretching from the foot of the Arabian mountains to the Jordan, where the Bible says that «the children of Israel wept for Moses in Araboth Moab at Jordan over opposite Jericho for forty days». It is where Joshua the son of Nun «was filled with the spirit of wisdom» when Moses died, «for Moses had laid his hands upon him», as it is written. It is where Moses wrote the Book of Deuteronomy, and where he «spoke the words of this song until they were finished, in the ears of all the assembly of Israel», the song written in the Book of Deuteronomy. And it is where holy Moses the man of God blessed each of the children of Israel in order before his death. When we reached this plain, we went on to the very spot, and there we had a prayer, and from Deuteronomy we read not only the song, but also the blessings he pronounced over the children of Israel. At the end of the reading we had another prayer, and set off again, with thanksgiving to God.

And it was always our practice when we managed to reach one of the places we wanted to see to have first a prayer, then a reading from the book, then to say an appropriate psalm and another prayer. By God's grace we always followed this practice whenever we were able to reach a place we wanted to see".

The localization of Livias-Bethramtha (On. 48, 15) identified with Tell er-Rameh, finds its justification in the distance along the Jericho-Livias-Esbus road given by the Onomasticon and by the pilgrims. The city is situated 12 miles from Jericho, according to Theodosius. Five miles to the north of Livias was Betnamaris (On. 44, 16). This last-mentioned village, 'about six miles distant from the Jordan' as John Moscus writes, is identified with Shunah-Tell Nimrin. The distance between Betnamaris/Shunah-Tell Nimrin and Tell er-Rameh/Livias, fits in with those given by the Onomasticon.

In the spring of 1980, on the west side of the tell Nimrin in Shuneh al-Janubiyyah, a church was by chance discovered, which is the first certain archaeological evidence for the presence of the Christian community in the diocese of Livias in the VI and VIII centuries. A second church was located one km south of the tell er-Rameh in the locality called Mazar set in a Muslim cemetery. The most famous bishop of Livias is Theoktemos who wrote a sermon in honour of the Virgin Mary commemorating her Assumption.

In her stop in the city at the foot of Mount Nebo, Egeria had enough time to commemorate, by reading the Bible and praying, all the biblical episodes related to this territory, referred to in the Bible as The Steppes of Moab. At the same time, she asked a priest of the city to act as her guide to the sanctuary of Moses on Mount Nebo.

The Hot Springs of Moses
The city of Livias was also famous for its thermal springs which abounded in its territory and which were known to the pilgrims as the Baths of Moses. The Pilgrim from Piacenza writes at length about Livias.

"Nearby is a city called Livias, where the two half-tribes of Israel stayed before crossing the Jordan, and in this place are natural hot springs which are called the Baths of Moses.

In these springs lepers are also cleansed. One spring there has very sweet water which they drink as a cathartic, and it heals many diseases. This is not far from the Salt Sea, into which the Jordan flows, below Sodom and Gomorrah. Sulphur and pitch are collected on the shores. Lepers there lie in the sea all through the day in July, August, up to the middle of September. In the evening they wash in these Baths of Moses. From time to time, by the will of God one of them is cleansed, but for most of them it brings only some relief.

No living creature is to be found in this sea. Not even straw and wood will float on it, and human beings cannot swim, but anything thrown into it sinks to the bottom.

From the Jordan it is eight miles to the place where Moses departed from this life, and a little further on is Segor.

There are many hermits in the neighbourhood, and we also saw Absalom’s tomb”.

Bishop Peter the Iberian uselessly sought relief from his sicknesses in the waters of these springs. this is related to us by John Rufus:

"On one occasion the blessed (Peter) was pleased to go into the regions of Arabia, by reason of his infirmity, in order to use the hot baths at Livias, named after Saint Moses".

Where are the hot springs of Moses which the pilgrims relate of? Given the confused recollections of the pilgrim from Piacenza, we ought not to go very far from the banks of the Dead Sea: 'In this sea' he writes, 'during the months of July, August and until the middle of September, every day lepers who lay ill, washed themselves at sunset in the hot springs of Moses ...' The information takes us to the environs of Isimuth-Suweimeh, 10 miles from Jericho (On. 48, 5) .

Geographers prefer to identify the hot springs with el-Hammam, to the south-east of el-Kufrein, to the north east of Livias. The water there flows at a temperature of 30° to 36° centigrade. This is the reason why Peter the Iberian had little benefit from bathing in it, and continued his journey to the hot springs of Baaru-Hammamat Ma‘in passing from Mount Nebo.

© Michele Piccirillo
SBF