Jericho; historical site of the lowest (under sea level) and oldest city in the world.

David's tower view.

Church of all nations.

Knesset. (Israeli parliament).

Sculpture of suffering.

Terry Fox Memorial.

Shrine of the book.

Israel local Transportation Cable car to Masada. Masada's Roman mosaic

Exploring Israel. We visited just about all the religious (Jewish, Islamic and Christian) sites in old Jerusalem. We also visited New Jerusalem which includes the Yad Vashem Memorial of the Holocaust, the Israeli Museum, the Shrine of the Book and the Dead Sea Scrolls. We also went to the Knesset (Israel's Parliament) and viewed the Gigantic Menorah and many more sites, to many to enumerate. We started the exploration of this biblical country from the town of Jericho; this town is situated on the west side of the Jordan River valley. Located about 244 m (about 800 ft) below sea level. Jericho is one of the lowest cities in the world. It also is one of the earliest continuous settlements in the world, dating perhaps from about 9000 BC. Jericho is famous in biblical history as the first town attacked by the Israelites under Joshua. They attacked it after crossing the Jordan River. Jericho is situated in the disputed West Bank area, occupied by Israel since 1967. From there we drove along the Jordan River to the old city (settlement) of Qumran. The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in the caves of Qumran. In the 1940s they were found on the vicinity of the Dead Sea by a young shepherd looking for some of his lost sheep on a mountaintop. The ground where he was walking gave way and he fell in a cave practically on top of these ancient manuscripts, which were made of leather, papyrus, and copper. This find has enabled scholars to push back the date of the Hebrew Bible. For a break, we went to the Ein Gedi Dead Sea resort for a bite to eat and refreshments. It is a landlocked salt lake between Israel and Jordan, the lowest body of water on Earth, which averages about 1,312 feet (400 m) below sea level. We bathed. The concentration of salt is so high that one can't sink. The water and mud supposedly are (anti-rheumatic and anti-arthritic) medicinal and Elsa and I, like everyone else, plastered ourselves with that black as coal mud. After a very rewarding and very tiring day we drove back to our hotel. Credits to Encarta and Britannica Encyclopaedia.

Millenarian olive three An Israel Park. Elsa Camel riding.

Digs found the original? Jericho City

Beduin camp; lady arguing with our driver

Jordan bridge on the Israeli, Jordan border.

Floating in extra salty Dead Sea.

Plastered with medicinal Dead Sea mud.

Where dead seas scrolls were found.