From Jerusalem to the Dead Sea and Sea of Galilee, like riding an altitude roller coaster

Thursday, Sept 19 (wow, this week is flying by!)

We are settled in at our hotel beside the Sea of Galilee in Tiberius, run by a Kibbutz, which we’ll learn about tomorrow, but back to today………

We started the day in Jerusalem (at 754 meters above sea level) and travelled pretty much downhill, on the same road that Jesus took to get to Jericho, to get to the base of the mountain where Masada stood. We saw a few changes in topography along the way and soon were travelling along side the Dead Sea, with Jordan barely showing through the mist on the other side of the Sea. The Dead Sea is part of the Great Riff Valley and is 430 or so meters below sea level (we’ve seen several different references to the actual meters below sea level) at the lowest point on earth. The Dead Sea is shrinking by approximately an metre a year because of the use of evaporation pools to capture various minerals from the water such as potash, and boron.

The land just outside Jerusalem is very arid but as we travelled along we saw acres of date palms laden with almost ripe fruit, mostly covered in bags to keep the insects off as the dates ripen enough to be picked. The Israeli’s invented drip irrigation systems and these systems are really effectively used in this arid area. Cherry tomatoes is another Israeli invention and they have produced all sorts of other varieties as well.

We saw some tents on the hills just outside of Jerusalem and were told that they were Palestinians protesting the plans by the Israeli government to build an industrial park to be named Area E which will effectively split the West Bank in half, and causing even more travel restrictions and delays for the Palestinians travelling between their communities.

Our first stop today was at the Masada National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2001. Masada, built originally by King Herod of Judea in 66 AD, was the last stand of the Jewish freedom fighters against the Romans and it turned out rather badly. After a 3 year siege when it was obvious that the Romans were finally going to over take the Jewish fighters, they made the desperate and sad decision to kill themselves rather than be taken as slaves by the Romans. Since suicide is against their faith, 10 men killed all of the other people and then one man was chosen to take the other 9 men’s lives and then fall on his own sword. The heroism and symbol of the struggle to overcome oppression have made it a site of great significance to the Jewish people.

There are some great ruins here, and the park service has put in metal models of what the rooms would have looked like and a model demonstration how the water system worked, which seems brilliant. The rain water was collected as it ran down the mountain sides where it ran by gravity into cisterns at two different levels and when needed was carted up to the top of the hill, making the fortress self sufficient and able to withstand the siege for so long. And allowing King Herod to fill his olympic sized swimming pool on the top of the mountain.

Next we were on to our date for a float in the Dead Sea. We stopped at a place called Kalia Beach where we changed into our bathing suits and headed down to the water. We quickly discovered the mud around the Sea (actually a lake) was as hot as we had been told it would be, and so we didn’t dawdle getting in to the water. It was quite the experience. I float well at the worst of times, so in this high salt content body (34% higher than the oceans) it took no effort to float, and in fact getting my feet on to the sea bed was quite difficult. The water felt almost oily from all the minerals in it, and we didn’t stay in too long for fear of getting dehydrated. It was a unique experience. We’ll get a chance to do it again on the Jordan side of the Sea on Monday of next week during our Jordan tour.

There are many skin care products made from the mud from the Dead Sea and we stopped at a factory after our bobbing to see what they had to offer. I didn’t buy anything but many in our group sure did. Yikes! The bags of stuff coming out the door was amazing.

We retraced some of our steps to get back up north to the Sea of Galilee and a hotel run by a kibbutz where we’re staying for tonight, but made a diversion to stop in what they claim is the oldest city in the world, Jericho, to see the Mount of Temptation where Jesus is said to have been tempted by the devil. There is now a monastery, which we could barely see in the afternoon light, built into the side of the mountain.

On our way out of the city, we did a drive-by of a place where you could see only the foundations of the walls of Jericho, which as you’ll no doubt recall from the song, came tumbling down. It was either from Joshua tromping up and down with rams horns for 7 days or according to some, an earthquake. I’ll try adding the video of our group singing with Mount Temptation in the background.

We passed through another check point to get back from the Palestinian Authority land in the West Bank to the Israeli side and at this one, they came on board the bus to check our passports. Even with travel documents no Palestinians are allowed on this particular road, which is unusual, so maybe that’s why they were stricter at this crossing. There were two border police, and the fierce look on the face of the woman doing the checks and the size of the automatic looking weapon being held by the other made us instantly aware that they weren’t fooling around. There was no fuss and we carried on our way. Unlike Palestinians whose movements are very restricted and controlled.

I have lost track of where exactly, but we passed by the ancient town of Qumran where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in caves up in the mountains.

Our hotel for the night is very comfortable although the wifi is a little flakey. It’s next to the Sea of Galilee where Jesus spent some time ministering. Israel gets 1/3 of it’s water from a desalination process using reverse osmosis and the rest if from the Sea of Galilee.

We had a buffet dinner at the hotel and it was great to get almost home cooking once again.