Doing the Dead Sea Float!

I understand that the following is insanely long. Therefore I will give you the photo links first, and you can choose whether or not the reading suits you! Love you, Claire!

Negev Feild Study Day 1

Negev Feild Study Day 2 #1

Negev Feild Study Day 2 #2

Negev Field Study Day 2 #3

Negev Field Study Day 3 #1

Negev Field Study Day 3 #2

Biblical Negev Day #1
This weekend started similar to all the others with one exception. Well perhaps a few. The main change being that I decided that I didn’t have to shower at 5 in the morning because I would be getting sweaty all day. It was very liberating. I can’t remember everything about this first day because it seems like it was a month ago, but hopefully I will be able to give you a good enough version to satisfy all of my adoring fans. (Right) We started our day snaking our way down the Sorek, heading towards the Negev.

SATAF NATIONAL PARK
Our first stop of the day was a national park which receives many visitors that love to hike. I however have no physical endurance and had no idea that this would just be the tip of our hiking iceberg. We were there to see the lovely views and have yet another example of cenomanian limestone. We also learned that the trails that we were taking would have been the typical back roads in ancient times. For some reason I wrote the next page of my notes upside down, so I will take a moment to flip them again. Alright, so we hiked all the way down the side of this wadi to a building that we didn’t actually talk about, so I am assuming it was byzantine. On the way we passed a home build into to a cave like we talked about in class. I would barely call it a home, but more of a one room shelter. The people who lived here would have been part of a very small community who lived by shepherding and terracing the side of the wadi. It was a great example of everyday life. There was a small spring there that would have provided just enough to live on. Basically the good and simple life.

TEL BET SHEMESH
Our next stop was to Tel Bet Shemesh in the Sorek Valley. Again we were in cenomanian territory with tera rosa soil. It was here we discussed the story of Sampson. Dan was given the area of Lod but they didn’t want to fight the people living there for it so they moved up north to the Galilee. However a few danites did stay and tried to live where they were given. One of these families was Sampson’s. It was interesting to hear the story of Sampson in its setting; actually, all the stories are more interesting when you can see the setting. Some of the preaching you here all of a sudden can’t be true anymore. It is really… enlightening.

TEL AZEKAH
Yes we are still on day one and not done yet! We were excited about this stop because it meant lunch, but it ended up being crazy fun. One fun part was we finally drove into Eocein rock territory and left senonian in the chalk dust. (That is pretty funny but the joke takes some explanation, see senonian turns into chalk… ) Anyway, we climbed a short distance to the top of the tel and looked out over the Elah valley down the diagonal road. It was in this valley were David kicked the butt of a Philistine named Goliath. We pointed out where everyone was camped, and it was neat to envision it all. Then before lunch Cindy took us down into some caves and let us crawl around. I finally got to use my head lamp! The neatest part was when this seemingly cute bat went nuts and flew into Melissa. I screamed “It’s going to kill me!” I am such a girl. Lunch was the same old pita and tuna, but we loved it.

LACISH
Next we came to Lacish, the toaster of the Israelites. I still am having trouble figuring out who came up with this analogy, but it makes me laugh so I thought I would mention it. It was a pretty interesting site and huge! This city was well fortified and everyone wanted it, because it was the doorway into the Negev trade routes. There was a really neat Assyrian siege ramp stuck on the side of it. Supposedly they would make their Israelite slaves build it so the isrealites inside would be less likely to kill them. What a terrible job!

ROMAN MILE MARKERS
Sometime during the day Cindy stopped the bus to take a look at some Roman mile markers. They were large stones stood up straight and carved on explaining where the heck you were in the middle of nowhere. I am sure they were very useful. Actually it was pretty neat to see them, as they are pictured in all kinds of books.

Biblical Negev Day #2
THE SUPER BOWL
The youth hostel we stayed at sat on the edge of the largest maktesh in Israel. A maktesh is like a huge crater, or at least I think that is what it is. She took us out to the edge in the morning to see the sun shining on the rocks. It looked like a wide grand canyon. I could not believe how big and beautiful it was. I wish I had the words to describe it. I stood really close to the edge so Jennilee could get a picture and thought I was going to be sick as my knees started to wobble. I decided I would be better to admire it from a distance. Later I could atleast sit by the edge, and that was nice. It was wonderful to admire the beauty of God’s creation and just the vastness of it all. This is what the Israelites would have gone through coming up out of Egypt. Also it was all Jurassic rock, the oldest in Israel.

AVDAT
Avdat was one of my favorite cities thus far. It was in the middle of the Negev desert and was built by the mysterious nabatiens. These are the people who built petra and could cross the desert without dying. Their secrets went with them to the grave. Avdat was just amazing. The dry Negev only gets around an inch of water a year, but they still figured out how to grow things, and had the best pottery of the time period. The ruins where best we will see in Israel. I was excited that I climbed on top of a huge archway, even though we all got in trouble for walking on the walls later. In some ways I am becoming more adventurous, which is scary, but I kind of like it. I am learning to trust myself and my body. Thanks Avdat.

HIKE UP ONE OF WADI ZIN’S FINGERS
I would say that this hike was one of those moments in my life where God showed me that I am stronger than I ever thought I was. The hike started up this beautiful dramatic wadi that had a nice stream down the center. I remember looking down and up the side and seeing a small ladder near the top and thinking about why it was put there. I had no idea at the moment that we were planning on going up the side of this thing. Maybe I could have gone down it, but up? I barely got up the snake like steps carved into the stone. And that was half way. By this time I was hyperventilating and crying. I think I was crying because I felt so defeated. I just couldn’t breathe. I felt like the only one who couldn’t do this on the inside. Half way up was a plateform with a cave where I stopped for some breath and where the ladder was. Megan agreed to go behind me and help me the rest of the way. She really talked me through the whole way up. Despite my tears and climbed out the top of that Wadi! I think around this time I noticed the pain in my legs was not going to leave me for the whole trip. Anyway, Praise be to God I did it!

TEL BEER SHEVA
Beer Sheva is where Hebron and Beer Sheva wadis drain into the Basor Wadi which drains the entire Eastern Basin. Here we find Loess soil which is basically windblown sand that you can grow barley in. There are no remains at Beer Sheva until the Iron Age, which raises a question of where the patriarchs were. However, we need to remember that Abraham was probably living in a tent and not a stone building. Here was a saw a well that went down at least 25 meters, and they haven’t even reached the bottom yet! This could be the actual well that Abraham dug. We also saw yet another good example of the four room house and described what life was like here.

TEL ARAD
Our last official stop of the day was Tel Arad in the eastern basin looking at the hills east of the Transjordan and the hills of ancient Edom. The gate was oriented towards Moab to watch enemies, thus this location anchors the eastern basin. This location was stronger and more strategic than Beer Sheva. They collected water by a system of cisterns. The interesting part about this tel was the to-scale replica of the temple in Jerusalem. We talked a lot about why Solomon would have built something like this. What was interesting was the presence of an a female counterpart to God here. More proof that Solomon, although a wise and worthy king, was giving into the God’s of his wives. He was blending religions.

Biblical Negev Day #3
MASADA
Our last day to me seemed more vacation like. The climb up the roman siege ramp was another example of my new life as a mountain climber. It took me about 15 minutes to get up, but the boys in our group broke the old record of 3 minutes and did it in 2.2 minutes! As for me I just happy to get to the top of the thing. It was for sure a daunting task, but I definitely earned my “I climbed Masada” t-shirt. Herod the great built Masada as a fortress and winter month palace. He probably only stayed there two months out of the year. Later it was used by the Zealots to hide out from the Romans. In the end they ended up committing suicide to escape becoming slaves. I also got to see a one million gallon cistern, and ride a cable car to the bottom. I would have walked down the insane looking snake path, however I didn’t think my leg could take it. I was glad to be on the cable car.

THE DEAD SEA
We stopped at the Dead Sea for lunch for a short float. I say short because you can’t stay in for more than twenty minutes or you will want to rip off your skin. There is no sand really, just sharp rocks. I got about two feet in and my feet hurt so bad. Then Marcus told me just to sit down and float away, and it really worked! The water feels oily to touch. We tasted it, and it was the grossest thing I have ever put into my mouth. You are not supposed to put your head under because if it gets in your eyes you instantly cannot see. The easiest thing to do is float on your back. It is a really neat feeling. Now, the burn. The burning is not so bad at first and seems bearable. That is until five minutes pass, and you start to become uncomfortable any place you may have even the smallest cut. Then the burning of your nether regions begins. I mean it! After about 15 minutes you feel like you are going to die from the burning. It was funny to watch no one mention it but see it on everyone’s faces. For lunch we had a cookout with hotdogs and bags of chips!

THE SPRINGS OF ENGEDI
I really enjoyed the waterfalls at Engedi. You could hike up through the wadi and swim in them. We stopped and read some about them and then set off by ourselves for an hour. We had a blast! We saw Ibex, which are like skinny horned goats that crawl all over the rock walls. We also saw these cute little rodents that looked like big ginea pigs. We walked up to the second water fall and swam and laughed and took pictures. It was nice to get the salt water all cleaned off of me.

QUMRAN
Qumran is thought to be were the Eciens lived. This was an intense Jewish community that John the Baptist may have been a member of. We went and saw the famous Cave #4 where the largest collection of scrolls were found. We were told that the famous opening was actually not there, and that the original hole was on the top! The crazy thing was that the government would pay by the pieces of scrolls handed in, so the Bedouins would rip up the scrolls and hand them in for a bigger reward! When we heard this we all gasped! The government found out and then gave rewards based on the size of the scroll handed in. However now everything is in little pieces. After this we decided to climb a huge rock formation and end the day looking at the Dead Sea while the sun sank in the sky. This was particularly awesome because it was another thing I was scared of and did anything. All of my friends helped me and I made it up! The only casualty was my pants!