Nieu-Bethesda - Travel & Tourism Guide Nieu-Bethesda - Afrique Du Sud

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It was the Reverend Murray de Graaff-Reinet who decided in 1875 to build a church in this small valley of the Sneeuberg, where a few farmers already lived. The Kompasberg, which stands at 2,504 m above sea level, is the highest point in the range. Bethesda, from the Aramaic bet hisda, "house of mercy", is the name of the miraculous pool north of the Temple in Jerusalem, where Jesus healed a cripple. You pass through the village along Martins Street, lined with willows and slightly dilapidated houses. For some time now, this isolated dorp, village, has become furiously fashionable. Nieu-Bethesda owes its fame to the late Helen Martins.