According to the Christian tradition, the site may have been the location of the event of the "Parable of the Good Samaritan" in the Gospel of Luke. There are few inns located between Jerusalem and Jericho, and Khan al-Hatruri could be a probable fit for the location of the story. After 1967 Israel developed the ruins as a tourist site officially called the "Good Samaritan Inn".
mentions the Late Roman fort of Maledomni, whose traces have disappeared under the Templar castle of Maldoim. Under the protection of the fortified place, a caravanserai was established. In the Early Byzantine period there seems to have been a fortress at the site, replaced in the 6th century by a square-shaped inn, erected around a central courtyard, providing Christian pilgrims with rooms, water from a central cistern, and a large church for worship.
Ottoman period
The Palestine Exploration Fund reported on the ruins of the inn in 1881: "Khan Hathrurah — A Saracen hostel, standing on high ground, and just north of the present Jericho road. A few piers and some of the walls are still standing. On the opposite side of the road are two or three small caves, in one of which is a stone with an Arabic inscription. Cisterns, well-built and supported on arches, exist beneath the Khan, and contain water. North-east of this, on the highest part of the hill, are the remains of a strong fortress, which commands the road here, ascending through a narrow pass between walls of rock on the east. On the west also there is a winding ascent to the neighborhood of the Khan. The rock, especially on the west, is of a ruddy color like burnt brick, whence the title, Tal'at ed Damm, 'Ascent of Blood ', is applied to the whole hill, and sometimes to the castle on the summit". In its present shape it was built in 1903.
In 2010, a Museum of Mosaics was opened at the site. It was initiated by Yitzhak Magen, the Staff Officer for Archaeology at the Israeli Civil Administration for the West Bank. Magen discovered that the site had been rebuilt in several historical and in every phase the site had apparently functioned as a khan, an Inn for travelers. In the Byzantine period a church was also built at the site, suggesting its importance as a pilgrimage site for early Christians. The floor of the church was once a beautiful mosaic of geometric patterns that had largely disappeared in modern times, so Magen decided that he and his team would restore the mosaic based on early photographs taken before the tiles had disappeared. After the successful restoration of the church's mosaic floor, it was decided to take the project further and create a mosaic museum at the site. The museum contains mosaic floors excavated all across the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and the Gaza strip, and a wing dedicated to the history and customs of the Samaritans.
