Samaria - Mosque

The route through Samaria runs past the mosque. As can be seen from a number of pillars and sections of wall, this was built on the remains of a Crusader church of 1160, which in turn was preceded by a Byzantine church of the fourth century. In a crypt under a domed roof are recesses in which the tombs of the prophets Elisha and Obadiah and the head of John the Baptist have been venerated since the fourth century. (Other relics of the Baptist have been preserved since the fourth century in the Omayyad mosque in Damascus.)