Israel Vacation 2001

Chapter 2: The Dead Sea

On the Road

The weather had been perfect so far. Not too hot, although the sun was intense, and very dry, so that perspiration was a very effective way to cool down. The only thing we had to be sure of is to keep taking enough water in. In fact, because it was an intense sun and very dry air, we had to drink a great deal. But this was nothing to complain about. Israel was suffering from a severe water shortage, and surely could have used some rain, but we saw none. This was not good for them, but for sightseeing purposes, this was perfect.

However, on this day, as we went to the car rental agency, the weather started to get very strange. A hot blustery wind blew suddenly from the East, and the sky changed from blue to orange. It never rained, but we had to put up with limited visibility and stiff blustery winds for the ret of the day. Fortunately, that was the only day in our vacation that we had inclement weather, and it didn't stop us from doing anything we wanted to do. We think that's pretty remarkable in a three-week vacation.

We found out later that the wind is a common occurrence, though it usually comes earlier than May. That kind of wind is called the "Hamsim" wind, and the orange color is caused by sand. In fact there had been a serious sandstorm in Egypt that day, and this weather that we experienced was just the small portion that carried over into Israel. Having experienced it, we wouldn't want to experience the real thing.

We took the fastest route to Ein Gedi, which consists of taking Highway 1 East through the West Bank, skirting Jericho, and turning right on route 90, and proceeding south to the Dead Sea. While parts of the West Bank are not safe to travel in, we were assured that this main highway route was fine, and it was.

During this trip we noticed that as soon as we left Jerusalem we were suddenly in a complete desert environment. This was the Judean Desert. In fact Jerusalem is built right on the edge of this desert. In the time of the First an Second Temples, the High Priest would release the scapegoat to carry the sins of the people into the desert. This was that desert.

Jerusalem is at an elevation of about 800m. as soon as we started East, we began descending rapidly. We dropped below sea level before we reached Jericho. The Dead Sea lies at an elevation of more that 400m below sea level. This is the lowest point on the surface of the earth. Geologically, this is part of the great rift valley that runs from Turkey in the North down to Ethiopia. the Bekaa valley in Lebanon, the Hula Valley in northern Israel, the Jordan River Valley, the Dead Sea, the Arava Valley that runs South to Eilat, separating Israel from Jordan, and the Gulf of Eilat are all part of this enormous geological feature that is deepening and widening as the plate carrying the Arabian Peninsula rotates counterclockwise.

So in little more than an hour, we have traveled from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea. We continue south past Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. They're not there anymore. They are in a museum. Further South, we come to Ein Gedi. Ein Gedi is a spring, and a Kibbutz was built there. Later a Spa and a guest House were added. We stayed at this Guest House for a couple of nights while we explored the region.

The Hamsim winds, orange sky, and limited visibility were with us for this entire trip. Fortunately, they were gone by the next morning. The picture of the Dead Sea was taken later from near our room at Ein Gedi. The day that we arrived, visibility was so bad that you could not even see the Sea from there. The far side of the Sea is Jordan, with its colorful mountains.

Masada

We drove to the Visitor Center. There are two ways up to the top: the cable car, or hiking up the path. We chose the path, because we like hiking, and we had an early start, so we had plenty of time. Before we even got started going up, we had to go down from the visitor center to where the path starts. On the way we encountered a family of Ibex that didn't seem to be very afraid of us. We felt sorry for the people who took the cable car, because they missed the Ibex family.

So we climbed up the path, called the "snake path" because it isn't very straight. When we got to the top, we took this picture of the Dead Sea way below us. We also took a picture of Steve with the Dead Sea in the background, to prove that we made it.

We spent the next several hours wandering around Masada. Jewish zealots gathered here following the great revolt against Rome in the year 66. In 70, when the Second Temple was destroyed in Jerusalem, the last of the zealots arrived.

We climbed into a cistern used for water storage, we saw the ancient synagogue and other ruins from the time of the Roman attack in the year 73. We found the bath house in the Western Palace, and a mosaic restored on the floor. During Herod's time, life here was comfortable compared to the time of the zealots, when many more people were squeezed into the habitable area, and some structures were converted to communal living.

Clearly identified was the breach point, where the Romans built a huge earthen ramp and were eventually able to breach through the wall and enter, only to find that the Jews had slaughtered themselves rather than be captured.

Masada then fell into Roman hands and was used for some years, but was abandoned. Masada was later used during the Byzantine period by Monks, at which time churches were constructed there, but again fell into disuse until it was discovered and correctly identified in 1838.

Flour Cave

A little beyond this is the enormous chemical processing facility known as the Dead Sea Works. This facility extracts minerals from the Dead Sea by first evaporating the water in special pans (ponds). Products include Carnallite, Potash, Salt, Chlorine, Bromine, Magnesium Chloride, Bath Salts, metallic Magnesium, and Aluminum Chloride. it's quite enormous and impressive, but we decided not worth taking a picture of.

Instead we turned onto the access road to the Flour Cave. This required us to drive on poorly marked dirt roads for several miles, until we were almost sure that we had made a wrong turn, when we came to the parking lot. There were no cars there. However, we got out and started to follow the trail. This is where it got interesting. The trail follows the route of the (Wadi) Nahal Perazim. This is a deep ravine cut into the soft chalky ground by flash floods. We had checked, though, and no flooding was expected today.

As we proceeded down the trail, the walls got higher and higher. We didn't really have any idea how far we had to go to get to the cave. The picture with Steffi in it should give you an idea of how big this Nahal was. When we did get to the cave, we realized our stupidity, as we had forgotten to bring flashlights. So we could not explore the cave, but at least the trip there was a lot of fun.

Dead Sea

After we drove back to Ein Gedi, we went to the beach to check out the Dead Sea up close. It has 6 to 7 times the salt content of the ocean, and is extremely rich in mineral ions. As a result it is extremely buoyant, and feels slippery, almost slimy. It will sting or burn any open cuts or sores you may have, we are told, but we didn't have any, so we went for a dip, or rather a float.

Steffi cannot float in fresh water or ocean water, but here in the Dead Sea, even she could float. We didn't even get our hair wet. One unexpected difficulty was getting out. It proved to be difficult to get one's feet down in order to stand up because of the buoyancy.

Nahal David

Hyrax look a little like very large guinea pigs. They are actually not related. In fact they are in a family by themselves. We took pictures of various animals on the short hike to the waterfall.

The waterfall itself was taller than we expected but otherwise not particularly spectacular. It did attract a lot of birds and other wildlife. We did not identify either of these two birds that we photographed.

Above, an Ibex was standing on hind legs so that it could reach taller sources of food.

The adult Hyrax pictured on the left is more typical in appearance of the Hyraxes we saw.

This story continues when we leave the Dead Sea and drive South through the Arava Valley to Eilat.

[Intro] [Jerusalem] [Dead Sea] [Eilat] [Judean Hills] [Mediterranean Coast] [Western Galilee and Jezre'el Valley] [Northern Galilee and Golan Heights] [Index]