The Dead Sea and the road to Eilat

Leaving Jerusalem, we took a long drive to the most southern point in Israel, the Red Sea resort city of Eilat. But like always in Israel, the road to our ultimate destination passed through several world-famous places. This post is about them.

First was a series of dry mesas and gulches that at first glance don't seem too remarkable, besides their desert natural beauty. But these are special. This place is Qumran, and its caves (just like the ones visible from the passing car) hid the Dead Sea Scrolls until they were excavated in 1950s.


The actual places where the scrolls were is about a mile off the road. But the caves were just like the small little caves you can see in the sides of the wall here.


The landscape seemed really lunar...


... but there are things living there. We managed to catch a brief glimpse of the ibex, the mountain goat. More on them later.


Besides the ibex, there was some other exotica to look at:


All along the road, there were dozens of date palm plantations. This is what one looks like from the car:


And this is what dates look like a few months before they actually ripe:


The road continued through some of the lowest and driest places on Earth. Driving farther south, we came across our first glance at the Dead Sea:


We stopped by an oasis called Ein Gedi, and went into the water. Everything you've heard about bathing in the Dead Sea is true. You can definitely read a book floating on it! It is impossible to drown. If you have a cut, it'll hurt from the salt. This is the Ein Gedi beach:


And now we are back to the ibexes. (What's the multiple of "ibex"? Is it "ibei"?) I noticed there were several of them close to the beach:


The ibexes were quite tame...


... but the tourists less so.


The Nubian ibex is mentioned in the Bible, but it didn't fare so well in the modern times. It was almost exterminated in the 20th century through overhunting, but the population has rebounded somewhat. Still, there are only 1,200 individuals remaining.


One more look at the Dead Sea across a wadi, a dried-out river:

Next on the itinerary is Masada, the ancient fortress atop a mountain just south of the Dead Sea. It is most famous for its defenders - the original Zealots - who committed mass suicide rather than be taken prisoner by the Romans in the 1st century.


This guy was in Masada's parking lot. Notice anything different about it? It is more slender, and cleaner than the feral pigeons you see in the cities. That's because it is not feral. This is one of the original, wild Rock Pigeons, the ancestors to all the domesticated/feral birds we are so used to.

After a few more hours of driving, and innumerate roundabouts, we came to Eilat and checked in. From the hotel's balcony, we could just see the Red Sea - this is its northern-most point. Two seas in one day - not bad!