St. George’s Monastery is a Greek Orthodox cliff-hanging complex carved into a sheer rock wall in the Judean Desert and is one of the most breathtaking sights in the Holy Land.
Starting in the 4th century, monks began to live in the many caves of Wadi Qelt.
The monastery of St. George was founded in the 5th century by John of Thebes, an Egyptian. He gathered a small band of five Syrian hermits who had settled around the cave where they believed the prophet Elijah was fed by ravens (1 Kings 17:1–7).
Tradition also holds that Elijah visited the cave by the monastery while traveling to the Sinai Peninsula as he fled the threats of Jezebel after he had killed the false prophets of Baal and Asherah (1 Kings 19:1–3).