Hakeldama or Akeldama is an area outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, on the slope of the hill that descends into the Gehenna Valley. It is identified with the Potter's Field, also called the Blood Field, which was to be bought for 30 pieces of silver received by Judas for betraying Jesus. At the end of the nineteenth century, the Greek Orthodox church built here the Monastery of Saint Onuphrius.
Place name comes from the Aramaic language. It was already known in pre-Christian times from deposits of red clay used by potters. According to the Gospel of St. Matthew was bought by priests for 30 pieces of silver, which Judas returned before hanging himself. Saint Luke, in turn, attributes the purchase to Judas himself and indicates that in this place he died falling from a rock.
During the crusades, a bloody chapel stood in the Blood Field, which in time fell into ruin. In 1892 a Greek church built its monastery here. It consists of a small temple covered with a dome and residential buildings. They are terraced on the mountainside. The whole is surrounded by a stone wall. Above the entrance to the church there is a carved plaque with a bas-relief depicting Saint Onuphrius. Under the monastery you can see the monk's cells carved into the rock.
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