The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall traced Christ’s footsteps on Wednesday when they visited an ancient site where he is said to have performed one of his seven miracles.
Charles and Camilla surveyed the Jordan Valley and Sea of Galilee from Gadara, known today as Umm Qais.
Perched on an imposing hilltop, the tourist destination boasts an impressive colonnaded street, a vaulted terrace and the ruins of two theatres.
It is also the place near where Jesus is said to have carried out the “miracle of the Gadarene swine” — freeing a man “possessed by the devil” by casting his demons into pigs.
As they enjoyed a walking tour of the site, the royal couple could also see the Syrian Golan Heights, Mount Hermon and the north Palestinian plains.
They were accompanied by Jordan’s Princess Dana Firas, a global advocate for heritage protection, who highlighted the Hellenic, Roman, Byzantine and early Muslim history of the site.
In its time, Umm Qais was home to several classical poets and philosophers.
Originally built by the Greeks in the 4th century BC, it was besieged in 218 BC by Antiochus III.
It became the thriving Roman city of Gadara and today is home to magnificent ruins which draw thousands of visitors each year. During the visit, Charles stopped and planted a tree to exemplify the UK-Jordanian partnership and in celebration of the centenary of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
They also took in the work carried out by organisation Turquoise Mountain, which was founded by Charles in 2006, and the Newton-Khalidi Fund, to revive historic crafts people’s skills.
The prince was later set to visit the International Rescue Centre (IRC) at the Al Nuzha Community Centre, where he was due to be met by Farah Daghistani, executive director of the Jordan Hashemite Fund for Human Development.
Others expected at the visit were Dominik Bartsch, Jordan representative for the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, Su’ad Jarbawi, regional vice president of the IRC, Sarra Ghazi, Jordan director of the IRC, and Pippa Bird, deputy development director at the British Embassy in Amman.
During the visit Charles was expected to see their computer lab and speak to children using it before going to an outside playground to meet locals and volunteers at the centre.
He was then meeting refugee families receiving UK assistance through UNHCR.
Charles and Camilla will tomorrow travel on to Egypt in the RAF Voyager for the second leg of the royal tour, which is the first official royal overseas tour for two years due to the pandemic.
