AMMAN — British Prince Charles and his wife Camilla visited the site on the Jordan River where Jesus is said to have been baptized tuesday, at the start of the British royal family’s first excursion since before the COVID-19 pandemic.
While visiting Elijah’s Hill, the couple saw excavations around the narrow muddy river near where John the Baptist and Jesus gathered for the purification ritual, and immersed their hands in the water.
Charles, 73, had arrived in Jordan with Camilla, 74, the previous Tuesday for a two-day period that will take him to archaeological sites and take him to meetings with representatives of devout denominations and humanitarian organizations.
Jordan’s King Abdullah, who had welcomed visitors with Queen Rania, evoked the symbolic moment of his kingdom, whose history Britain helped shape, marked its centenary, and also congratulated Charles on his decades of environmental advocacy.
Charles, Queen Elizabeth’s eldest son and heir to the British throne, said he hoped to act after the UN weather conference, COP26, in Glasgow, which kept alive foreign hopes about the worst effects of global warming.
“Now I hope the discussions have lasted so long, it’s time to act on the ground, which is the most vital thing of all,” Charles said.
After Jordan, the British royal circle of relatives will travel to Egypt, where they are scheduled to meet with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
(Reporting via Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Hams Rabah edited via Gareth Jones)
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