Shechem - Jacob's Well

On the eastern slopes of Mount Gerizim, some 500m/550yds southeast of Tell Balata, is a Greek Orthodox church within which is a 36m/118ft deep well traditionally believed to have been dug by Jacob. It is also believed to be the well at which Jesus met the woman of Samaria (John 4,5-9). Around 380 a cruciform church was built on the site which in later centuries was several times destroyed and rebuilt. In Crusader times a three-aisled church was built over the well. From the 15th century onwards this fell into ruin, but the crypt and the well have survived to the present day. In 1885 the site was acquired by the Greek Orthodox, who began in 1903 to rebuild the Crusader church - a project which has not yet been completed.