October 24-25 Masada, Qumran, Dead Sea, Mount Nebo...

We were headed to the Dead Sea but our local guide suggested we go first to Masada to beat the long line that usually form later in the day for the cable car ride to the fortress. We could have hiked to the top, but the prospect of walking an uphill, shadeless trail for a couple of hours or more was not a pleasant alternative to any of us LOL. After Masada, we visited Qumran to see the caves where the Dead Sea scrolls were discovered, then down (way down, it is more than 400 meters below sea level) to the Dead Sea and back to our Jerusalem hotel at the end of the day.

The following morning we left Jerusalem and crossed into Jordan. We had to change bus and local guide at the border (probably one of the many subtle indications of the persistent "love, hate, and hate more" relationships between Israel and their neighbors LOL). We drove to the Baptismal Site at Bethany, which Pope John Paul II visited in 2000; then on to Mount Nebo, where Moses viewed the Promised Land, to the Church of St. George in Madaba thereafter and to Amman, the capital of Jordan, where we stayed for the night.

Note the trail below the cable car lines that leads to Masada, a fort built atop an isolated mesa-like rock structure where a thousand Jews resisted the Roman invaders for years. When they were finally overcome, the survivors decided to commit mass suicide rather than surrender.

I think these tourists lost their bananas because of the sun's heat. They are trying to knock down what was left of the wall at Masada! I did not asked them, but I think they are descendants of the Roman invaders out to finish the job their ancestors started LOL.

Trail leading to the caves at Qumran

Young Israeli soldiers on guard duty at Qumran National Park

The Dead Sea

Check out these girls giving themselves a mud bath that's supposed to have a healing effect on whatever their skins suffer from, except the effects of old age; otherwise, I would have been rolling there in my naked glory LOL.

Note some of the bathers floating on their backs because of the dense water. I did not test my bouyancy, I was worried about the effects of the the chemicals that have accumulated through eons in this water over my body if I can't wash them off pronto.

It says it is the lowest bar in the world (416 meters below sea level)!

Our Jordanian local guide and the bus we transferred to when we crossed over to Jordan. The bus was "equiped" with an undercover tourist police that traveled with us while we were in Jordan.

If I am not mistaken, this is part of the Promised Land that Moses was shown. Where are the trees and the vital source of water? I am not buying!

I can't resist taking a pic of this young Jordanian girl working on a mosaic "print"

The road leading to the Church of St. George in Madaba which hosts the famous mosaic map of the Holy Land.