Monastery of the Temptation Téléphérique, Cable car system to Mount of Temptation in Jericho, Palestine

The cable car system to the Monastery of the Temptation is a transport facility that rises from Jericho up to the clifftop monastery, carrying visitors across an elevation gain of about 180 meters (590 feet). The journey crosses the slopes of the Judaean Desert and provides direct access to the monastic structure built into the mountainside.

In 1997 the Palestinian Authority approved a cable car for the millennium, funded by businessman Marwan Sinokrot through his company Sultan Telepherique and Tourist Centre. The Austrian firm Girak-Garaventa built the 1,330-metre single-cable loop system between 1998 and 1999 for 21 million schillings. Service was suspended during the Second Intifada and later resumed, with growing numbers of foreign visitors in recent years.

The last monk of the Qarantal monastery, Father Gerasimus, was not involved in planning the cable car and is not satisfied with its construction. The lift was financed by Palestinian businessman Marwan Sinokrot, who founded Sultan Telepherique and Tourist Centre for the project. It was intended as a tourist counterpoint to Masada, where a second cable car was built at the same time.

The cable car journey takes about five minutes and spares visitors a strenuous ninety-minute walk up the mountain. The system runs daily with regular departures from the Jericho terminal building.

The cable car is the longest lift built below sea level, running 1,330 metres from Jericho to the Qarantal monastery at −50 metres. It passes over the Tell es-Sultan excavation mound, at −230 metres, and the Elias spring. The last monk of the monastery, Father Gerasimus, was not consulted about its construction.