Holy Land Mountaintop Pilgrimage -- Israel and Jordan, January, 2014 -- Days 6 and 7

Day 6, Friday, January 24, 2014 … another early rise, breakfast at the hotel, then motored east to the Capital City of Amman.  One hundred years ago there were only 3,000 people living there; today it’s about 3 million … many have come over in the last 4-5 decades as refuges from Israel, Syria, Iraq, etc. Jordan has 3 refugee camps right now, mostly of displaced Syrians.  It is a modern city where the king lives.  Jordan was established in 1946 as a buffer country between Israel and the rest of the middle-east.  Their relationship with Israel has always been good. The country exports 1 million ton of fruits and vegetables, most to the Arabic countries.  No chemicals are used on their products.  Friday is their Sabbath and Saturday is the remainder of their “weekend”.

Tending the sheep in the desert

Seventeen different civilizations have lived in this area from 1800 BCE to today! It’s been interesting for me to listen to our guide’s explanation of the history of Jordan and his special emphasis in the significance of this area, especially as it relates to Old Testament Biblical history.  It is a point of view I have never paid much attention to, so this has been very enlightening. The terrain to Amman is about the same as we saw yesterday … hilly and barren; however, Amman itself is higher and has more vegetation.  We went to the Church of Martyrs for Mass.  The priest there has written a book on  Modern Christianity in the Holy Land … and he even autographed it for us! (well … for Bob really!).

The famous Petra Treasury

We then headed straight south and then back west for a bit for about 3 hours to Petra.  It never ceases to amaze me at the nothingness of the countryside, the desolation … just brown … no trees, no shrubs, no grass … nothing that we can see … just brown flat, sometimes hilly ground.  However, an occasional town does pop up, and of course, the Bedouins, those desert nomads tending their sheep in the desert and living in goat-hair tents just as they did thousands of years ago!  I even saw a woman behind a plow being pulled by a donkey.  In some areas of the desert they are mining sulfates, which is a big industry for them. We stopped in Wadi Musa, a Bedouin City, for lunch, a town right next to Petra.

Of the four ancient kingdoms, this area was settled by the Edomites.  They are descendants of Easu and the people who did not let Moses and the Israelis pass through.  It is also the area where Moses and Aaron truck the stone and water poured out.

Next there were the Nabataeans , whose history begins about 6^th Century BC,  and who were one of the most gifted people in history, were ancient Arab tribes who originally came from the  Arabian Peninsula more than 2200 years ago and finally settled in southern Jordan.  It is believed the first Nabatite was the son of Ishmael . They were good business people … and cornered the market on leading camel caravans along the Kings Highway between Damascus and Africa.  They became very wealthy and needed a place to store their wealth, so they built Petra, often called the “rose city” because of the colored rock.  The colors are due to the oxidation of the minerals in the rocks … very beautiful!  There is a long, deep, natural gorge leading to the City that is simply stunning.  It was through this gorge that they filmed the Indian Jones’ movie … it was uncanny how I felt just like I was in the movie while walking through that mile-long  narrow gorge with the steep cliffs about 250 feet high!!! And then, within the rocks, they carved out buildings … and the architecture is phenomenal … some archaeologists have ranked ancient Petra as the eighth wonder of the ancient world.

Bob -- the Arabian Knight!!!

While coming back (all up hill), about half way up was an area where you could choose to ride a horse back to the entrance or continue walking … up hill! Bob and I choose to ride the horses … it was fun.  Even funnier was the gentlemen with Bob let him reign the horse on his own and even put his scarf hat on Bob’s head … with his beard and all, Bob could have been mistaken for an Arab as he came to the end of the journal … so funny!

A long 3-hour trip back to our hotel on the Dead Sea … sure is a nice place!  It was a long day but certainly worth the drive … definitely something worth seeing.

Day 7, Saturday, January 25, 2014 … We walked through this luxurious resort (directly across the Dead Sea from Qumran, Israel if you’re trying to find it on a map) down a couple hundred stone/marble steps to the shores of the Dead Sea, put our feet

The Dead Sea

into it, tasted its bitterness (because of its 33 percent mineral content), took some pictures and then made the hike back up the stairs for another delicious breakfast!  The Sea is a beautiful blue because of its depth (over 1,000 feet deeper on the north end) in contrast with the white, barren mountains across the way. Back on the bus, we traveled north a little past the Dead Sea through more nomadic settlements with their goat-hair tents, lots of goats … even saw a shepherd cross a four-lane highway with his herd of goats —everyone stopped … and camels. These are not Bedouins, just nomads. Going north also meant more vegetation and agricultural fields. There were also lots of people just sitting around under trees alongside the road … enjoying their weekend.  Going through customs was again a long process … first stop in Jordan, then through Israeli customs and finally another checkpoint!  We changed buses back to our Israeli tour guide and driver.

On the Jordan River where it is said Jesus was Baptized

Just a few minutes to the south along this Judean wilderness, we stopped at Qasar El Yodad, the place where it is thought that John the Baptist baptized Jesus.  It is a moving spot where we saw several people completely immerse themselves into the Jordan for ceremonial (or real, possibly) baptism.  Jeff gave a good talk noting that this is about where Joshua crossed the Jordan with the Children of Israel. He compared John the Baptist with the prophet Elijah, who also wore the cloak and who was taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire in a whirlwind around this vicinity.  This is where Jesus began his public ministry, 1300 feet below sea level, (the lowest place on earth!) and God came down saying “This is my beloved son” (compared to his transfiguration 2000+ feet above sea level where God also spoke “This is my beloved son”).  We then had Mass on the banks of the Jordan River during which we renewed our Baptismal vows.  And afterwards the priests poured water from the Jordan River over our heads as another renewal of our Baptismal vows.  Just …. Wow!!

Our next stop was Qumran.  We had lunch there and a little tour of that area.  When the Jews rebelled in 70 CE and the Roman army

One of the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found

destroyed Jerusalem and the Jewish Temple, many of the Jews were made slaves, but some fled to the desert.  One group settled in this region, and the remains of their village has been unearthed.  It is expected that the Rabbis of this group spent their time writing scrolls.  Then in 132 CE the Jews rebelled again and the Romans attacked this area; but before they fled, the Jews placed their scrolls in jars and hid them in the mountain caves.  It wasn’t until 1949 that these Dead Sea scrolls were found, first by a Bedouin shepherd boy.  We got to see a cave where other scrolls were found by the Israeli military.  These scrolls shed a lot of light on life at that time.  The longest scroll is the book of Isaiah, which is the same wording as is used in today’s Bibles.  There are scrolls for at least portions of all books of the Bible except Nehemiah and Ester.

We continued south to the end of the Dead Sea … This area is definitely wilderness  …  the Dead Sea on our left and the steep cliffs of the desolate, barren Judean wilderness on our right. Fascinating.  Interesting to see so many people walking in the desert, but it is their Sabbath, their day off, and they come to explore the desert!

We passed the oasis of Ein Gede, where David sought shelter from Saul in a cave near here.  And we passed Masada, a natural fortress

which was built up by King Herod … we’re making a trip there on Thursday … history lesson to come!  Then there was a large natural salt mountain where legend has it that one of the pillar is Lot’s wife ... she turned to a pillar of salt because she disobeyed God and looked back at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah … well, it doesn’t look like a woman but that’s the common folklore nonetheless.

The Dead Sea itself has receded considerably over the last 20 years, which is a concern to both Jordan and Israel … and they are talking of ways to counteract that such as piping water from the Red Sea (which is at sea level) to the Dead Sea (1300 feet below sea level).  There are huge mining operations by both Jordan and Israel on the southern end of the sea … as they mine the sea’s minerals … magnesium, calcium, sulfur, bromide, potash, etc. Quite the operations!

From the south end of the Dead Sea we turn west and then south, climbing into the mountains of the Negev Desert.  It is cooler because our hotel is 1500 feet above sea level.  The Negev Desert encompasses about 60 percent of the country of Israel but only 8 percent of the people live here. Even at that … whenever a city is encountered, I wonder how in the world they can make a living here in this nothingness!  Our hotel is in a Kibbutz in Marshabet Sade.  The Kibbutz was established in 1947, and they discovered a water source; so one of their main activities is raising fish.  There are about 150 families in this kibbutz … it is very modest, but adequate.  And this desert area is indeed very quiet … you don’t hear cars, horns, planes, etc. and not a lot of activity overall.  Dinner also was not as fancy or bountiful as the others we’ve had on this trip, but it was good.

Everything in Israel is expensive!!!