Inn of the Good Samaritan becomes a museum

Since 1988 there has been excavation and restoration of mosaics in an ancient inn that sheltered pilgrims at this site on the route between Jerusalem and Jericho. The inn is the one referred to in the Gospel of St. Luke as the place where a good Samaritan saved and treated a man who had fallen victim to robbers on the ancient road. In the complex with the inn was found a 4th-century church decorated with black and white mosaics of geometric design, which have been completely restored (see illustration on p. 53). There now exists a mosaic museum at the site, displaying pavements from Jewish, Samaritan, and Christian buildings, including mosaics from churches in Gaza brought here after the Israeli-Palestinian Agreement of 1995. The museum also contains copies of other well-known mosaics, executed by the team that restored the pavements in the church associated with the Samaritan inn.