Our most beautiful desert oasis

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A real oasis in the desert, near the Dead Sea.
Ein Gedi, my most beloved nature spot in all of Israel!



This Apple of Sodom grows from the rock and clings to the canyon wall in Nahal David, on the way to the waterfall.
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June 1 is Theme Day and City Daily Photo members are starting to blog about Nature today.
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Shabbat of Consolation

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The bus goes down down down from high altitude Jerusalem to below sea level Dead Sea.
With reflections of the skilled driver in the mirrors for Weekend Reflections.


A few days ago, on Tisha B'Av, Jews mourned the destruction of the Temples and of much of Jerusalem and the beginnings of our exile.
But God in his mercy does not leave us totally in this doom and gloom.
Instead, on the first Sabbath after Tisha B'Av he gives us Shabbat Nachamu, the Sabbath of Consolation, named after this day's reading from the prophet Isaiah 40:1-31 which begins "Nachamu nachamu ami," meaning "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people."

1 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins. 3 A voice cries: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
. . . 9 Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, "Behold your God!" 10 Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. 11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd, he will gather the lambs in his arms, he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young. . . .

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Shabbat shalom!
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Life on the edge

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This Apple of Sodom clings to a canyon wall near En Gedi, near the Dead Sea.
It has even managed to grow over a ledge and reach for the edge of the cliff.
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Wikipedia has a picture of the hollow and bitter fruit of the Calotropis procera.
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Edges are the theme for our April 1 City Daily Photo Theme Day.
Click here to view thumbnails for all participants.

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Shaded by palm thatch

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These fun shadows were shot especially for Hey Harriet's "Shadow Shot Sunday."

Date palm trees grow in big plantations along the shore of the Dead Sea.

So it is only natural that the En Gedi Nature Reserve should use their fronds as thatching.

The huge umbrellas cover the ticket booth and the picnic area.

(No eating is allowed inside the oasis in Wadi David. )

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For better views of the roof see here and here.

So it was the bright sun coming through these roofs that made the sharp shadows.

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Rock hyrax on a rock

It was so hot in the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve that this rock hyrax was just slung out on a rock in the shade, trying to chill.
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The Procavia capensis are mammals but their body temperature is not constant; it changes according to the ambient temperature.
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More about hyrax, including one in an ancient mosaic, in my winter post about Ein Gedi.
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The cute critter is joining all kinds of other animals this weekend at the Camera-Critters meme.
Go have a peak at them.
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Summer sky seen from 422 meters below sea level

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The visiting American friends and I took the bus down to the Dead Sea early this morning.
Literally DOWN--from Jerusalem's 800+ meter elevation to 422 meters (1,385 ft) below sea level at the shore of the salty sea.

I love the desert!

These are the cliffs on the way to Ein Gedi.

In the heat of summer it is always hazy.

You can see the water of the Dead Sea in this picture, but very faint appear the Mountains of Moab over in the Kingdom of Jordan.

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Other skies from around the world are viewable starting tonight over at SkyWatch Friday.

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That sinking feeling

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Before we get back to reporting about Jerusalem, allow me to share just one more thing about my recent visit to Ein Gedi.
It is That's My World Tuesday and I'm wishing my world were still down in the warm Rift Valley instead of up here in presently rainy cold (2 to 5 degrees C) Jerusalem.

We always hear that there are no boats on the Dead Sea because the water is so corrosive.
Some 34% of the water is salt and minerals, i.e. eight times the saltiness of a normal sea.
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So what is this boat for, and what is the thing behind it?
Does anyone know? I searched and found no answer.
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Certain tiny algae are the only creatures that can survive.
It is only a joke that you can catch salted fish here. :-)

The Dead Sea is the lowest place on earth. Its surface is more than 400 meters below sea level.
And this unique body of water is shrinking fast.
Kibbutz Ein Gedi built a spa right on its shore 25 years ago. Today a bather or mudpack-seeker must drive 1.5 kilometers to reach the water.

The sun was just setting and we had to catch the bus back to Jerusalem (the bus climbs 1150 meters in an hour and a half).
But first my hiking friend, visiting from Europe, really needed to go down to the lonely shore and touch the famous Salt Sea waters just one time.
Even though I warned her of this:

Bol'anim! Holes that swallow you!
Look at that warning triangle with a person falling into a pit!
A geologist who was swallowed by a sinkhole himself says there are up to 3,000 open sinkholes along the coast and likely just as many that haven't burst open yet.
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UPDATE Feb. 2015: Finally, information (and great photos) about that boat--in The Boston Globe.
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The Chalcolithic temple

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While hiking in the Judean Desert near the Dead Sea, we came upon an ancient temple . . .

These are the oldest findings (so far) in the Ein Gedi oasis, from about 5,500 years ago.
That was the Chalcolithic period.
The pagan temple served as a cultic center for the nomadic tribes of the region.
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Welcome! Step through the entrance gate.
See the stone benches here and along the base of the far wall?
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The temple was found empty.
Where were the cult objects they made and used for generation after generation?
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It has been proposed that the priests of that temple assembled the temple's objects at a time of approaching danger and hid them in a cave for safekeeping. The fate of the Chalcolithic inhabitants is not known. They may have fled or been killed, leaving the hoard behind.
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And in 1960-61, in a cave not far away, in Nachal Mishmar, Israeli archaeologists discovered the fabulous hidden hoard!!

Tools, mace heads, standards, crowns.

Look what beauty from a time when people here in the region were only first beginning to use copper!

And so many--442 objects, most made of copper.

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More about the Cave of the Treasure at the Foreign Ministry website (from which these two photos are taken) and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art website.
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(When I moved to Israel in 1968, I devoured the books and legends about the archaeological expeditions in the desert. That crown shown above always fascinated me. Tears came to my eyes when I first saw it before me in the museum in Jerusalem in 2006.)

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About a hundred standards (tubular scepters) were wrapped in the straw mat in the cave. Traces of wood or reed hafts were preserved on some standards and suggest they may have been carried on poles, perhaps in sacred processions.
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On the temple's central altar animal bones and ash were found, testifying to its use as a sacrificial altar.
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Hoping that the pagan gods of the 4th millennium BCE were no longer around, I dared myself and my hiking companion to stand in the high place.

Neither she nor I was struck down by fire from above.

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Thatch

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Everyone was so interested in yesterday's thatched roof down in En Gedi, so here is a picture with more detail.
Click to enlarge.
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Kibbutz En Gedi has a huge date palm plantation (and mango trees too), so there is no lack of material for the the big "umbrellas."
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What not to do in the WC

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Only a few hardy souls take the public bus down to Ein Gedi.
Our bus from Jerusalem let us off at the Nahal David station, on the highway that hugs the shore of the Dead Sea, and we walked over to the Nature Reserve entrance.
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Most folks drive their own car.
Or big groups, mostly classes of school kids, have their own chartered bus for the day.
They park here next to the palm trees of the Ein Gedi parking lot.

Here at the entrance, under the two huge "umbrellas" made of dried palm branches, is your last chance to buy some food or to eat your picnic breakfast/lunch.
Once you buy your ticket and enter Wadi David, no eating is allowed.
That keeps Nature clean and keeps the wild animals from getting used to handouts.
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It is also your last opportunity for many hours to use the washroom.
Plenty of toilets for the big groups of hikers.
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Did I say WASHroom?

Don't even think about washing your dishes there. The sign, complete with ibex + tree logo of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, says it is forbidden.

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Eeuw, who would want to do that anyway.

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Antiquities in the desert

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As you would expect, "A" is for ANTIQUITIES and ARCHAEOLOGY for today's ABC Wednesday.
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All photos will enlarge with a click.

Welcome to En Gedi Antiquities National Park, much of which is under the sheltering tent.
Note the Dead Sea in the background, and the mountains of Moab in Jordan.
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The first sign of this magnificent mosaic was discovered accidentally, when a field was being plowed in 1965. It turned out to be a synagogue, adjoining rooms, and a street.
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The thriving Jewish community living in En Gedi existed from the 3rd to the 6th century CE (the late Roman and Byzantine periods, also know as the period of the Mishnah and Talmud).
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Archaeologists conclude that the settlement and its synagogue were destroyed by fire in a wave of persecution under the Roman emperor Justinian I around 530 CE.
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The synagogue probably had a second-story balcony.
The present mosaic carpet was created in the mid-5th century to replace older ones.
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The bamah, where the portable holy ark stood and where the Torah scroll was read.
Three small menorahs adorn the mosaic.
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The rooms might have been dwellings for the synagogue staff.
Two mikvahs (purification baths) were also found.
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This is cool because it shows the stratigraphy of the preparatory layers for a mosaic, layers with fancy names like (from bottom to top) statumen, rudus, nucleus, bedding layer, and tessellatum.
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The most exciting part of any mosaic--the dedicatory inscription!

But not easy to photograph with the setting sun, so instead I give you a picture of it from the excellent leaflet.
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I quote the leaflet written by Avivit Gera and translated to English by Miriam Feinberg Vamosh:

"The first section depicts the 13 ancestors of humanity: 'Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mehalel, Jared, Enoch, Methusaleh, Lamech, Noah, Ham, Japeth.' "
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"The second section shows the 12 signs of the zodiac, the three patriarchs, the word 'shalom,' followed by the names of Daniel's three companions who, according to legend, are the three bases on which the world rests, and finally, a blessing for peace on Israel:

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'Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces. Nissan, Iyyar, Sivan, Tamuz, Av, Elul, Tishrei, Marheshvan, Kislev, Tevet, Shevat, and Adar, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Peace, Hananiyah, Mishael, and Azariyah, peace on Israel.' "
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"In the third section, an inscription appears in Aramaic which mentions the benefactors of the synagogue, Yose, Ezron, and Hazikin, sons of Halfi.

The inscription also charges all inhabitants to conduct themselves according to the rules of the village.

It warns of a curse on those who start quarrels, slander their neighbors before the Gentiles, steal, or 'reveal the town's secret.' "

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"Most scholars believe that En Gedi's economic welfare was based on a secret method for producing perfume from the balsam shrubs cultivated in the area. The inscription may hint at this possibility."

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"The fourth section contains an Aramaic inscription noting the names of the above-mentioned benefactors and calls for blessings on them for their good deeds."

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The fifth section (not shown) thanks the citizens and "Yonatan the cantor" who paid their share toward the repair of the synagogue.

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And I, Dina, thank the archaeologists who excavated this site off and on from 1970 to 2002 and the Israel Antiquities Authority Conservation Department who lovingly preserved and restored these wonderful mosaics and the site from 1991 to 1996.

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Rivers in the desert

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After a warm sunny winter the rain is finally hitting us today, all across Israel.
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The south is particularly hard hit, with dry wadis suddenly becoming raging rivers.
Roads have been broken up. Drivers who try to cross the flooded roads have been rescued with helicopters. One woman is dead and one man is missing.
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Just last Thursday a friend and I were hiking in two canyons of the Judean Desert--Nahal Arugot and Nahal David.
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Enlarge the trail map and you will understand the danger that rainfall, even far away, poses.
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The Ein Gedi Nature Reserve is sandwiched in between the Dead Sea (which is more than 400 meters below sea level) and the steep Fault Escarpment, the cliffs which rise to +200 meters above sea level.
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Rain up on the Desert Plateau, even as far away as Jerusalem, sends the water rushing down the narrow canyons.

The water takes with it rolling boulders, rocks, trees, mud . . . .

It makes a powerful sound.

Hikers must always plan their hikes according to the weather forecast. Announcements of possible flash floods in the low places, the desert, are always made in advance if there is any rain expected.

The sudden streams in the desert rush down to the Dead Sea, cutting up or flooding the highway.

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Ein Gedi is famous as an oasis because it has springs and waterfalls and vegetation all year.
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These are the waterfalls in Nahal David in normal times, i.e. last Thursday.

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Scroll down a few days if you missed seeing the animals of Ein Gedi.

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We certainly need rain, but not all of it in one or two days.

Let us pray for all who are in harm's way right now, including the nomads of the Bedouin diaspora who still live in tents and huts in the desert who have lost much today, including many of their sheep and goats swept away by the floods.

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For photos of overturned vehicles, a bus half-covered with water, trapped cars, the helicopter rescues, etc. see Ynetnews or Haaretz.
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That's it for That's My World Tuesday.
More blogger-guided tours await you at the meme's website.

Rock hyrax everywhere

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Psalms 104:18 says

חָרִים הַגְּבֹהִים, לַיְּעֵלִים; סְלָעִים, מַחְסֶה לַשְׁפַנִּים
"The high mountains are for the wild goats [ibex]; the rocks are a refuge for the hyrax."

I posted a picture to prove that about the ibex, now let's look at the hyrax.
Here is my last-Thursday hiking friend communing with a hyrax near the first waterfalls at Ein Gedi Nature Reserve.
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Families of rock hyrax (Procavia capensis) , or conies, live in rock crannies or in thickets of reeds.
Even though they are mammals, their body temperature changes according to the ambient temperature. So on cold mornings you can see them sunbathing on top of rocks before resuming activity.
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Like the ibex, the hyrax are remarkable climbers.

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And they run really fast!

The rock hyrax have lived in the Jordan Valley for a long time, as evidenced by this ancient mosaic in Tabgha.

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Next week for Camera-Critters Sunday meme we can look at the birds of Ein Gedi.

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