The Monastery of Euthymius started as a lavra-type monastic settlement in the Judaean desert, founded by Saint Euthymius the Great (377–473) in 420, known as the Laura or Lavra of Euthymius. After its final abandonment in the 13th century, it was repurposed as a caravanserai and became known as Khan el-Ahmar, the Red Caravanserai, khan being an originally Persian word for inn or caravanserai. Its ruins still stand a short distance south of today's main Jerusalem-Jericho highway in the West Bank. It should not be confused with the nearby Khan al-Hatruri, better known to visitors as the Good Samaritan Inn, which sometimes also used to be called Khan al-Ahmar. Monastery Lavra of St Euthymius (428-473) The church was consecrated by Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem on 7 May 428. The lavra, a cluster of cells for hermits around a church, was located in Adummim on the road from Jericho to Jerusalem and was based on the layout of the Pharan lavra, with small cells. The vita of the founder, also known as Euthymius of Lesser Armenia, mentions him living his first years as a monk in the Holy Land (406–11) at Pharan. Byzantine cenobium after Euthymius Following the death of Euthymius on 20 January 473 the church was converted to a refectory and a new church and cenobium were built above it. The cenobium was the area that novitiate monks would receive training prior to admittance to a lavra of the Sabaite tradition. The new church was consecrated by Martyrius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, in 482 and the site thereafter became known as the Monastery of St. Euthymius. Early Muslim period The lavra, ruined by an earthquake in 660, was rebuilt in a similar manner. Ancient testimonies speak of a Bedouin attack on the monastery in 796/97 as part of a series of such attacks against monasteries in Jerusalem and the Judean desert at the end of the 8th and beginning of the 9th century, but archaeology in general tends to paint a picture of peaceful abandonment, rather than destruction brought about by man or nature. Crusader period In 1106 Abbot Daniel noted: "To the east of the laura of St. Saba, only behind the mountain, is the Monastery of St. Euthymius, three versts away, and there lies St. Euthymius, and many other holy fathers lie there, and their bodies are as those of living people. There is a little monastery on