Day 6c - En-Gedi and the Dead Sea

En-Gedi (or Ein-Gedi, ein meaning "spring" and gedi meaning kid "little goat") is a natural oasis in Israel just to the West of the Dead Sea. It was surprisingly close to Masada and the Qumran caves.

Short History of En-Gedi
In 1 Samuel 24, when David was running away from Saul, he and his men found a place in the wilderness. As the Biblical account goes, Saul went looking for David, and eventually had to relieve himself in a cave. That cave happened to be the exact one where David and his men were hiding.

Saul doesn't notice them, and David's men encourage him to kill the king that had been chasing him for so long. David however, does not want to kill the king, who was anointed by God, and so he cuts off a piece of Saul's cloak. Later, when they confront each other face-to-face, David shows Saul the cloth that he had cut, showing that he could have killed him, but chose not to. Saul breaks down and cries and the two men reconcile.

This, is that En-Gedi :)

These deer are adult size, and they are about 1.5 ft high :) It says "Don't feed the deer", but people have obviously been feeding them...

The Dead Sea, just across from En-Gedi

Owen

Other people visiting En-Gedi. They graciously agreed to pose for a photo

me and Marvin

Closer shot

The "mini" deer! (Actually this is an ibex or wild goat) (I Sam 24:1-2)

Another strange animal... Anyone know what this is?

These are rock badgers! (Proverbs 30:26)

Once we were done with En-Gedi, we finally, *finally* were able to go swimming...

This is the Dead Sea!

Short Note on the Dead Sea
The Dead Sea is one of the few exports that Jerusalem has. Everything else is actually imported.

I did say: "The Dead Sea" is one of the few exports that Jerusalem has. They export the salt, and the water, and the mud, and, seriously, I have no idea what else, but there were products from hand lotion to shampoo, to facial scrubs, to soap, from almost every possible thing that they could take from it. What a way to make money! :)

Stuart
Trying to float and balance my hat... :P
The shore doesn't have sand, it has hard, calcified sea salt.

Thus ended our day!! :)

Tomorrow: The Wailing Wall and Golgotha!