Harper Family Highlights: Jordan River, Bet She'an, Qumran, and the Dead Sea

An olive tree that still had (overripe) olives left on it.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011
We checked out of hotel in Tiberius after breakfast and packing up. Every morning before we went to breakfast, we would set our suitcases outside the doors of our hotel rooms and the porters would take them down for the bus to us. We always had four hotel rooms for our group, usually close together and sometimes adjoining, which was nice.

The hotel in Tiberius had the best chocolate-filled croissants that we have been pining for ever since. We enjoyed them one last time.

Our first stop was a baptismal site on the Jordan river. This was much too close to the Sea of Galilee to be where Jesus was baptized, but it is a place that is safe (much of the Jordan River is the border between Israel and Jordan), so an accessible baptismal site has been built here. We joined with another tour group for this event (they had been traveling along the same route as us and we saw them in the hotels at night) since they had an ordained clergy in the group who was going to perform the baptisms.

These people of various Christian denominations all wanted to be baptized or re-baptized to renew their covenants. I was grateful we have the sacrament every week so that we can weekly renew our baptismal covenants without rebaptism. However, this was a very significant event for many of these people and we could tell it meant a lot to them. It was wonderful to watch people recommitting themselves to Christ.

Baptisms at the Jordan River

At the Jordan River

It was a beautiful area and the river was so green here.

The Jordan River

Our next stop was Bet She'an National Park.

Bet She'an National park, which extends over an area of 400 acres, includes the ancient city of Bet She'an Scythopolis and the imposing Tel Bet She'an. The archeological excavations, which started in the 1920s, but significantly picked up in the late 80s and 90s with an influx of Russian Jews who needed jobs, have uncovered about one tenth of the city's area.

Like many of the other sites we have been too, there were layers upon layers of civilizations built here. Most of the ruins here are from the ancient Roman city, but other civilizations existed here before.

It was so fun to walk around and explore this ancient city.

William had fun collecting rocks and getting to run around. It was a little boy's paradise!

The city was destroyed by an earthquake. However, they have only found one skeleton (a man clutching gold coins--some significant lessons to be learned from that story), so it seems that the rest of the population escaped.

Remains of Bet She'an destroyed by an earthquake

The amphitheater at Bet She'an

Before the Romans were here, the ancient Israelites had a battle here. After a defeat by the Philistines, the slain bodies of King Saul and his sons were hung on the side of this tel.

The tel (hill) at Bet She'an

We hiked to the top and had a great view.

We left Bet She'an and got back on the tour bus. This is a view out my window as we drove through the Israeli countryside. Jericho is in the background. I often wondered why there is so much fighting about who owns this land. It really is so desolate.

After all the that running around, William took a much-needed nap on the way. This busy schedule was a little hard on him, but he mostly did well.

We reached Qumran National Park a little before lunch time. This is the place where some shepherds found the famous Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947. Our tour guide in Jordan told us that those shepherds were his "cousins" but who knows how closely they were related.

Our first stop was a museum. We saw a short movie and learned about the people who lived here, the Essenes. They lived in the area around the time of Christ and served as scribes. They lived a communal lifestyle and were very interested in ritual baths and purity. Seven ancient scrolls were found in jars in a cave, including books of the Old Testament, the Apocrypha, and the sect's own works.

Replicas of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the museum at Qumran

After we left the museum, we hiked around the area of Qumran. There were lots of difficult-to-reach crevices and caves.

Love this picture.

The cave where they found the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran

Listening to the tour guide at Qumran

William wasn't so interested in what the tour guide had to say, but he sure had fun in the rocks.

Ritual baths found at Qumran

We took time to eat a late lunch and then got back in the bus and drove toward the Dead Sea. We weren't that far away, but the resort where we stayed was on the south end of the Dead Sea, so we drove next to it for over an hour. We could see the salt buildup on the edge.

It was very hazy out, so visibility wasn't so great.

Our first glimpse of the resorts on the Dead Sea

We got to our hotel and then hurried to change into our swimming suits. We wanted a chance to go in the Dead Sea before it got dark. We got there about 3:30, but it took time to get our luggage, change into our swimming suites, and get down to the beach.

We enjoyed the view out of our room while we waited for our luggage.

View of the pool from our room on the Dead Sea

It was so hazy you couldn't see the horizon.

The Dead Sea from our hotel room

We were told that the water in the Dead Sea has healing properties. It is the saltiest body of water on earth, and nothing can live in it. If you drink it, you will die. Our hotel had a gigantic spa with all sorts of Dead Sea treatments available for a hefty price. It is also the lowest point on earth, at 1200 feet below sea level.

Everyone was anxious to get in for a dip. It had been a warm day (in the low 70s I'm guessing), but it was turning evening and getting a little cool. The water was a bit cold.

One does not "swim" in the Dead Sea, but floats instead. It was a cool feeling, but it took a leap of faith to lift your feet up and try to relax.

Not everyone liked it, however. The water burned and stung William's legs and he screamed and cried after being in for less than a minute. I didn't realize at first what was wrong with him. I had him wrapped in a towel, so I didn't notice his legs were all red. Grandma Hales, who didn't like the water either, eventually took him to the swimming pool and he sat on the top step for a few minutes. I'm sure that helped cool his legs. My face got splashed and after a few minutes it also started to sting and burn. I didn't get it washed off fast enough and so my face was red and splotchy for at least an hour.

They advised us to not stay in the water longer than 20 minutes, so after our dip, we went back to the room and showered. Washing and then lotion on my skin helped to take away the burning feeling.

The next morning Sarah knocked on our door around 6:30 a.m. She was awake and ready to go for another dip in the Dead Sea. So we put our swimming suits on and went down again. It was beautiful and calm at the beach. I put my swimming suit on, but just ended up taking pictures. We didn't have a lot of time before we needed to eat breakfast and board the bus. (It had nothing to do with the water being cold. Nope. Not at all. Okay, maybe just a little bit.)