Down The Jordan Valley

On our fourth day in Israel, we exited from Galilee to Jerusalem. En route, we went down the Jordan Valley, into Palestine and Bedouin territory. The Jordan Valley is a whole stretch of scenery that separates Israel from Jordan, and we got to see a smattering of Bedouin settlements here and there.

We had a break at Jericho, the site of the Mount of Temptations, where Jesus was tempted by the devil for forty days and nights, which became the signifiance of the forty days of Lent. Here we could use the restroom and took at look at the gift shop. I even went on a camel ride!

 We passed by a flock of sheep drinking water, a sheepdog and a Bedouin shepherd along the way.

 Fresh stream water

 Foot of the Mount of Temptations

 This was the camel I would be riding on

 Bedouin settlement from the Mount of Temptations

 The monastery on Mount of Temptations, supposedly on the site where Jesus was tempted

 Me riding a camel!

Posing with my camel

Incidentally, the camel I was riding was the most stuck-up animal I have ever come across! When we reached back to the starting place, it refused to get down until its handler had to "tell him off", then it stooped down and let me off its hump. But it seemed happy posing with me!

After we were done at Jericho, we went down to Qumran, next to the Dead Sea, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were originally discovered, shedding light to an old settlement of religious people. Besides the exhibition of the artifacts there were found, we could also eat our lunch there and shop at the gift shop, which has the biggest variety of dead sea products by the way.

 An old ritual bath

 This was one of the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were first discovered

 This is Mount Nebo on the Jordan side, flanked by the Dead Sea. This was where Moses died.

Incidentally, Ruth's ancestors were Hebrew, then went over to Mount Nebo and inter-married with some of the pagans there. Ruth was descended from there, then crossed the sea to Qumran, where she married, but her husband died. Her mother-in-law let her go, but Ruth insisted on staying with her mother-in-law and took the people there as her own. The people there were "degenerating" as in they have become thieves, prostitutes and criminals. Yet it was from the people and community here that Jesus was descended.

We went in for lunch after that, then shopped a while in the gift shop, before going over to the Dead Sea which I will cover in my next post. After that we went down to Jerusalem where we spent the remaining of our trip!