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Article: Unearthing Mideast religious sites spurs tourism: Last week, a cave - possibly John the Baptist's home - and other Roman artifacts were uncovered.(World)
- Article from:
- The Christian Science Monitor
- Article date:
- January 16, 2001
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 The Christian Science Publishing Society. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Spectacular new archaeological finds, including a cave that was claimed to be the rock-hewn home of John the Baptist, could boost Jordan's drive for a larger stake in one of the region's most competitive industries: religious tourism. It has long been dominated by Israel, which predictably challenged the significance given to the discoveries.
"The competition between the Jordanians and Israelis today is part of a long-standing pattern," says the Rev. Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, a leading New Testament scholar in Jerusalem. "There was a proliferation of holy places in the Byzantine period. If you had a holy place, you made money."
The cave, said to ...