The Dead Sea

The two days I spent in Tel Aviv had basically been the mid point of the trip. I'd enjoyed my time in the northern part of the country, but I was excited to get out and head to the south, to the desert parts of Israel, where much of the country's ancient history and geographic wonders are located. I left Tel Aviv very early in the morning for two reasons; the first was to avoid having to drive in Jaffa and Tel Aviv (then around Jerusalem) during the height of rush hour, the second was to get to The Dead Sea area early to beat the massive crowds of tourists who flock to the region everyday from Jerusalem.

It was a little over two hours from Tel Aviv to my first stop, Qumran National Park. It was at this spot in the caves near the northern part of the Dead Sea that a shepherd boy, in 1947, looking for a lost sheep threw a stone into a cave opening and heard the crash of pottery breaking. Upon further inspection, he found a manuscript inside the pottery that turned out the oldest known versions of the Old testament and the Apocrypha. Further excavations discovered the village of the Essenes, the breakaway Jewish sect who left the mainstream because they were concerned about the religion becoming too liberal.

The site today is highlighted by the unearthed remains of the village. Of particular interest were the ceremonial pools, which are a testament to the Essenes belief in cleanliness.

It was possible to hike up the mountainside to the numerous caves there, but I had read in guidebooks that the cave where the scrolls were found were unmarked, so I didn't do this. I also wanted to get on to my Dead Sea float.

The Dead Sea is the lowest point on Earth at 422 meters below Sea Level. It is amongst the saltiest bodies of water in the world with a salinity level of 33.3%. This makes it impossible for anything to live in it. It also makes it almost impossible for anything to sink in it. That is why one of the essentially touristy things to do in Israel is to have a 'float' in the Dead Sea. For this experience, I chose a place called Mineral Beach.

I had been given a tip by some people I met in Jerusalem that Mineral Beach would be a good place to do this since the crowds would less overwhelming than they would be at the beaches in Ein Gedi, some 20 kilometers down the road. Most of the previously mentioned bus tours from Jerusalem stop in Ein Gedi, and since it was the Jewish holiday of Shevout, I had a feeling Ein Gedi would be unbearable.

I rented a locker for my stuff and headed down to the shore. Since I was by myself and I'd read a lot about theft being ripe on the beaches of the Dead Sea, I took only my old camera and towel down to the beach with me. Floating in the Dead Sea comes with all kinds of rules to make the experience as pleasant as possible. The above signs give an example of of such rules. I'd read a lot about this experience so I knew not to shave in the days leading up to my float. I also knew that the two small abrasions on my elbows I'd suffered when bumping the walls in Akko a few days earlier would burn from the salt content. Lucky for me, they'd healed and were only mildly uncomfortable.

The crowd at Mineral Beach so early in the morning was small. I heard a lot of Russian being spoken, and didn't see another American anywhere on the beach. I'd hoped to find an English speaker so I could ask them to take a picture of me floating. Instead, I had to rely on setting up my camera and getting into the water within the 10 second limit set on the camera's timer. I was pretty pleased to get the above photo, but it took three tries to get it. The experience of floating in the Dead Sea was unique. I entered as instructed, walking in backwards until the buoyancy of the water kicked my feet out from under me and then I was floating. The feeling of my feet going up made me momentarily nervous, as I expected my head and face to flop back into to the water as they would in a normal body of water, but they didn't and my whole body floated gently near the surface of the water. The texture of the water was oily, something I'd read about, but was still surprised to feel. The water was also warm (compared to other lakes I've swam in) and my initial reaction was that it felt like I was floating in a deep fat fryer, because of the temperature and oily feel. I had trouble getting used to floating so easily. After a few minute I realized I had been straining to keep the upper part of my body out of the water, which, of course, wasn't necessary, but was a force of habit. I didn't float for long- I'd read that more than 20 minutes wasn't particularly healthy, but I observed people who stayed in a lot longer than I did and they didn't seem to be having any problems. Getting out was an interesting experience, too. I first tried flopping over on my stomach to get my legs down, but all that did was force me to strain to keep my head out of the water, avoiding pure agony I'm sure. Eventually I was able to get my feet on the bottom by paddling to shallow water and bending my knees sharply while sitting forward. I showered off immediately, both down on the beach and up in the locker room as recommended.

I left Mineral Beach and headed south down Highway 90 driving on "the worlds lowest road". I stopped many times along the way to take pictures of the Dead Sea.

Later in my trip I would meet many people who would say that their visit to Ein Gedi National Park was one of their favorite things about Israel. I was surprised every time I heard that because Ein Gedi was one of the least favorite places I visited, although to be fair, it wasn't Ein Gedi's fault. Ein Gedi is a lush green oasis with waterfalls and hiking trains in the middle of the desert. Being the Jewish holiday of Shevout, the park was packed beyond belief. When I pulled into the parking lot I could see that instantly, since they were parking people in a gravel auxiliary lot across from the main parking lot which was full already. I waited in line at the entrance gate to show my pass and then walked up the main trail to start hiking some of the paths. Much to my disappointment, the first path was so crowded with families out enjoying the holiday with some hiking, that the path had a line to get onto it and then people were proceeding in a tight single file line down the path. After 5 minutes, I made it to the waterfall pictured above. I looked at the crowds on the path ahead of me and, after snapping a few pictures of the waterfall, turned and reluctantly headed back toward the parking lot. I'm not a big fan of crowds to begin with, but thousands of people with little kids running around all over the place on what are supposed to be serene hiking trails was definitely not my scene.

I stopped in the visitor's center on the way back and read about the all the plants and animals I was supposed to have seen on the hike.

Since I'd planned to spend a few hours hiking at Ein Gedi, I had some extra time to kill. I pulled out my trusty Let's Go Israel & the Palestinian Territories and looked for something else to do. Masada was a few miles down the road but I was going to hike up there early the next morning. I read about a resort community called Ein Bokek where they had some restaurants with free Wifi and some outlet stores where I could get Dead Sea mud for the souvenirs that Janeen wanted for her friends.

Ein Bokek was an upscale beach resort, with lots of fancy hotels & spas that would have been way out of my price range had I decided to stay there. Fortunately for me, I was just looking to get into some air conditioning and upload some pictures on the free Wifi. Ein Bokek is south of the actual Dead Sea, it's beach area is on an area that used to be part of the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea has been shrinking for many years, and the part around Ein Bokek had dried up in the 1980s. The Dead Sea Works, a company that extracts minerals such as potash for export overseas built a series of canals and retention ponds that filled with water creating an artificial extension of the Dead Sea, which is what people who go to Ein Bokek swim in.

Like Ein Gedi, Ein Bokek was bursting at the seams with the holiday tourists. It was like any state park in the U.S. would be on Memorial Day or Labor Day. People were enjoying floating in the water, barbequeing and shopping at the many outlet stores which lined the main street through the community. I used the free wifi at a McDonalds on the north end of the strip, bought a tone of Dead Sea mud and salt (which I dreaded having to carry around once the car was gone), and enjoyed the air conditioning for a while.

Lot's Wife

Leaving Ein Bokek, I continued south to Flour Cave, and the rock formation known as Lot's Wife. In the Old Testament, Abraham's brother Lot lived in the wicked cities of Sodom & Gomorrah, which God destroyed due to their wickedness. He allowed the pious Lot to escape with his family, warning them not to look back at the destruction as they were fleeing. Lot's wife couldn't help herself, and she was turned into a pillar of salt.

The Flour Cave is so called because of all the white powdery residue people who explore the cave get all over themselves while inside. The powder is actually salt, since 90% of the hills are salt. I didn't explore much of the cave because I didn't have a flashlight with me, but I did go in as far as the light would allow so I could get some pictures of the salt deposits.

It was still only early afternoon, and even with all I'd done so far, I still had time to head to another sight, the ancient Nabatean city of Mamshit, which was just a couple of miles from my accommodation for the evening. I'll cover Mamshit in my next post.