The Dead Sea is a desert among water bodies, the most unusual lake in the world. Its surface is 1400 feet below sea level, and the water is almost 10 times as salty as the oceans.
The view from our oasis as a new day dawns. A truck drives toward bedouin villages.
The desert is a special place in the biblical story, and in Israel, as we found out on this day.
We started out day walking past the tamarisk tree to the ruins of Tel Beersheva.
The Shephelah is the foothill region of Israel, between the coastal plain and the Judean hills. In ancient times it was the border between the Israelites and the Philistines, so it has a number of sites of archaeological interest.
“Here’s the Shephelah,” says our co-leader, Dr. John DeLancey of Biblical Israel Ministries and Tours. We’re actually at the site of Gezer, an important Old Testament city that changed hands several times and was presented as a wedding gift to King Solomon by the Pharaoh of Egypt.
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