The Jerusalem Post reports on a new museum that has opened at the traditional Inn of the Good Samaritan.

The Museum of the Good Samaritan, which is located on the Jerusalem-Jericho Road near Ma’aleh Adumim, was officially opened Thursday evening after a nine-year archeological excavation at the site.
The official dedication of the NIS 10 million museum, which displays mosaics from the West Bank and Gaza, coincided with US President Barack Obama’s long-touted Middle East speech in Cairo in which he reached out to the Muslim world….
The site, known as the Inn of the Good Samaritan, received its name in the Byzantine period when it was identified with the inn mentioned in the Parable of the Good Samaritan in the New Testament.
The site lies on the upper end of the ascent on the main road from Jericho to Jerusalem, which pilgrims followed when traveling from the Galilee and Transjordan to the Holy City.
Over the last decade, archeologists have uncovered remains dating back to the Second Temple period at the site.
During the Byzantine period, the site was revived as a way station for Christian pilgrims, and an inn was constructed that included a large church, a cistern, residential quarters, and a fortress to protect pilgrims from brigands.
In the Crusader period, with the expansion of pilgrimage to Jericho and especially to baptismal sites on the Jordan River, the inn was renovated and a fortress erected above it to guard the road to Jerusalem.
The structure housing the museum was built in the Ottoman period as a guard post, which remained in use until recently.
The mosaics on display at the museum were discovered in the West Bank and Gaza and belong to Jewish and Samaritan synagogues – including a mosaic from a Gaza synagogue – as well as churches.

The full story is here.

 Traditional Inn of the Good Samaritan with Jerusalem in the distance