Today we left the area around the Sea of Galilee and headed towards the Dead Sea area. Our first stop was the Mayan Harod National Park which contains the spring of Gideon from Judges 7. At this site we did a video clip of the group for 100 Huntley Street. Since there was breaking news yesterday that an Hamas's leader was killed by Israel in Gaza we thought our families at home would be worried about us. Our guide assured us that we are perfectly safe.
The next stop was at the ruins of the ancient Roman Byzantine city of Beth Shan mentioned in 1 Samuel 31. Amazing what they built back in those days. See our facebook page for a picture taken there.
Driving south we passed through the West Bank area. There are three different levels of civil and security control in this area. Area A is completely controlled by the Palestinian Authority, Area B is under Israeli security and Palestinian civil administration and Area C is completely controlled by the Israelis. We did pass through a number of checkpoints but the bus basically just slowed down and kept going.
We passed by Jericho and saw Mount Nebo in Jordan. We were unable to go to Jericho because of the political situation there. It is under Palestinian control. Mount Nebo was as close as Moses was allowed to the Promised Land and he was buried on it.
Our next stop was Qumran, the site of the Dead Sea scrolls. We saw the remains of an Essene communal area. They apparently lived in caves and came to the communal area to bath, eat and work. They considered themselves as the sons of light and purity was very important to them. The sect was entirely male. Our guide informed us that the dead sea scrolls confirmed the text of the old testament and there were no contradictions.
Our last stop was a cosmetics factory that makes cosmetics from salts and minerals from the Dead Sea. Basically a ploy to get you to buy some of their stuff. Oh well, you can expect some of this kind of stuff on these tours.
As a point of interest we were driving down highway 90 which runs all the way from the Northern tip of Israel right down to the Southern tip and is approximately 700 kms long.
Pictures will come later.
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