What a wonderful day we had today! We left Danit’s apartment mid-morning and headed to the Dead Sea. David had talked about a geographic line that essentially divides the terrain from green to desert. And sure enough, you can see this demarcation.

The drive from Jerusalem takes about an hour and we traveled through very interesting topography. Clearly, it is desert for much of the way. About one-third of the way we saw a sign indicating sea level. Then we drove the rest of the way downhill further into the desert. The Dead Sea is 1,400 feet below sea level making its shores the lowest land-based elevation on earth. It was definitely an amazing experience to see this large body of water out in the desert.
Our first stop was at Qumran, a national park and archeological site. The site is best known as the settlement nearest to the Qumran Caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were hidden, caves in the sheer desert cliffs and beneath, in the marl terrace. The site shows that a community, probably a sect of religious male Jews, lived there. There are many cisterns and ritual baths at the site and a pretty good aqueduct system for moving water from the hills to the community. You can see the walls of many rooms around the site.







I wondered how people could live in such a desolate place, and David replied, “you get used to it.” There was available water from the mountains nearby, where there apparently are many natural springs, but I couldn’t really imagine how crops were grown, although I’ll say more about agriculture in the area shortly.
Because the major excavations in the area occurred from 1947 ti 1956, there a lots of photos showing the discoveries. We learned that it was a Bedouin who found the first scrolls, but not at this site. This site produced some 900 scroll fragments.




The desert mountains are very impressive behind the Qumran site. You can look up and see small cave openings where scrolls were found. One site where some of the most important scrolls were found was quite near the community.





The Qumran site is just about a mile from the Dead Sea. It is near the northwestern end of the sea. The views of the sea are amazing. Carol said, could you imagine what people thought who had wandered around the desert, saw the huge body of water in the distance thinking it would be potable, only to learn that the water was super salty and not drinkable, and they chose to stay here?!




All this territory is part of the West Bank, the name coming from the west bank of the Jordan River. The Jordan River flows into the Dead Sea from the north. Everything east of the river and the sea is the country of Jordan.
After our visit to Qumran, we went to a beach on the Dead Sea. We changed into bathing suits and headed down to the beach. As Christine said, a once in a lifetime experience, swimming in the Dead Sea. But there is no swimming. It’s pretty impossible to do anything other than float on your back. You don’t want to get your face in the water, that could cause some serious pain in your eyes. There’s a technique for getting in to the water. You slowly make your way wading into the sea and when you are about thigh deep, you squat down and lean back to float. If you’re not careful, the buoyancy in the water can flip you over quite quickly.





Once you’re floating, it’s really quite challenging to stand up again. The water just pushes you upwards because of the high salinity. Once you are on your feet and starting to stand up, the water causes you to nearly tip forward, so it really takes a lot of concentration to not end up face down.
Another thing that the Dead Sea is famous for is its mud. Apparently, the mud contains minerals that are supposed to be excellent for the skin. Lots of people go to a muddy area and pick up piles of mud and rub it all over their bodies. It looks really funny seeing all these mud-covered people walking around.


The mud was located near the kayaks in the above photos. We walked over there are found out just how slippery the mud section was. But I covered myself in mud, as did Carol and David. Christine was less enthusiastic to try it. After you are muddy, you just go back into the sea and wash off, although its not so easy to rinse off completely. I’m glad none of us had a camera during our mud baths.






After our Dead Sea experience, we showered and had lunch at the beach area and then began the drive back to Mishmar HaEmek, about a 2-hour drive. David chose to return a different route and it was an experience. We traveled up through the West Bank near the Jordan River. This area is a big agricultural area, surprisingly. With desert mountains to the west and the Jordan River to the east, there is a very flat valley. One of the biggest crop productions is dates. You drive along the foothills of the desert mountains and see miles and miles of date palm trees.




The water apparently comes from underground springs and artesian wells. It’s incredible to see how people really wishing to work hard have converted the desert into a very productive agricultural area. We saw lots of vineyards and fruit orchards, herb and flower farms, but I think the mainstay crop is dates. You see bags hanging up in the palm fronds where the dates grow, so when the dates are ripe, workers just cut down the bags full of dates.
We were really struck by how really beautiful the desert is with all shapes of rocks and mesas, high peaks, and rolling foothills, in all various colors. The shadows of clouds on the mountains and hills adds another dimension.

We did see some Bedouin people living pretty rough in the foothills. Many of them are shepherds with goats or sheep. There were some who had camels, which was an amazing site to see a herd of camels. I didn’t get a picture of herds of camels, but at the beach area there was a camel waiting for tourists to pay for a camel ride.

I’ve seen too many videos of tourists, falling forward over the camels head, when it knees down, to take on a camel ride.
We arrived safely back at Mishmar HaEmek, all tired and satisfied with a wonderful couple of days in Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. We feel very fortunate to have Carol and David as our tour guides. They make the trip both educational and very fun. We’re having a great time!
I enjoyed your day too!
I am home from Panama after calm and on-time flights.
SO happy to read your blog- brings back the same memories of floating in the Dead Sea and the sharp contrast of the green vs desert.