Day 8 - Thursday, March 16, 2023 - Jerusalem and travel to Dead Sea

 First thing this morning we participated in an archeological activity. In 1999, unauthorized Muslim construction at the temple mount dug up 7,000 tons of material with no archeological supervision as required by law. This was stopped and a project was set up to examine the material that was dumped. For the last 18 years, an organization has been sifting through the debris looking for important artifacts.

This is a regular stop for tourists to provide free labor for the activity. We were shown a video about the project and were given a short tutorial on how to do the work. We then divided up into small groups which each dumped buckets of material onto a tray, washed off the mud and searched for shards of pottery, glass, metal, mosaics, metal, bone and interesting stones. We found many tiny fragments of all of them. I found a small piece of a pottery bowl from 2000 years ago! (About the size of my fingernail)

We took the bus to Old Jerusalem Jaffa Gate and walked through the old city to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. In the photo below, the dome on the right is over Golgotha, where Christ was crucified. We went inside and up steep narrow stairs to the spot where the cross was in the ground, then down to Adam's tomb and a crack in the rock from the time of Jesus death. Then  we went to see Jesus tomb but didn't even consider going in. The line was hours long and the crowd was dangerously packed - it was difficult to get out and a relief to be back outside.

Lunch was at a Catholic retreat / hotel facility a 15 minute walk.

Then a bus ride to the Israel Museum. When we arrived, we could see and hear protesters in the distance, opposing the proposed undemocratic legislation. The Israel Museum has a huge scale model of Jerusalem from the Second Temple era - we even saw this used in a Netflix movie we watched. Then to the Shrine of the Book which contains large parts of the Dead Sea scrolls and commentary about the Essene's life in the first centuries BCE and CE. Yonatan then gave us a tour of the highlights in the antiquities section of the museum. One of the most significant is a silver amulet from the 6th century BCE with an inscription from Numbers 6:24-26: “The Lord bless and protect you. The Lord deal kindly and graciously with you. The Lord bestow his favor upon you and grant you peace.” This is oldest known original scripture from the bible.

The plan had been to spend another night in Jerusalem but due to the Jerusalem Marathon on Friday, many roads will be closed early in the morning and it would be difficult to get out of town to our next destination. So it was changed to stay at a hotel on the Dead Sea instead. Along the way we saw many date palm farms and barren land between the road with signs to stay out - I expect due to unexploded landmines or other ordinance.

There is a cluster of new hotels on the southern end of the Israeli side of the Dead Sea where people can enjoy the water. After dinner, Carmen and I went to the swimming pool which is filled with this dense salty water and it is truly strange to float so high in the water.

Sifting for treasure with Nina and Harry

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Mosaic of Abraham stopped from killing Isaac

Jesus tomb in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Dead Sea from our hotel window

Floating in the pool



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