A dive into the Red Sea

On Thusday, plans fell through to go visit my friend in Galilee for the weekend, so I decided to join others in a plan to go down to Mt. Sinai to watch the sunrise on Saturday. We left early Friday morning. Around 7:00a.m. our bus left, taking us down along the Dead Sea, through 4 hours of desert, finally reaching the tip of the Central Bus station in Eilat at around 11 o'clock. We took a bus to the border, where we stopped at a hotel to use their rest rooms to change.

The Red Sea was absolutely beautiful. The view of Jordan and Saudi Arabia was magnificent over the great blue water. The rocks along the shore glistened and shimmered in the sunlight, even through the water. There was little sand, and as we swam out further, it became rather apparent that those glimmering rocks were most likely placed there, because they were only on the shore haha. Regardless, it was a nice free beach without the hastle of sand, which I thoroughly appreciated. There was a bridge that reached about 40 ft into the Sea to which we swam. My friends, Craig, Theo, and Crosby all took it upon themselves to dive into the water off of the bridge. I have just within the past two years become better at swimming and going under water, so diving in was quite a feat in my eyes. I looked at them enviously and decided, "Hey, if I'm going to learn how to dive, I might as well do it in the Red Sea." I had that erking feeling in my stomach of indecisiveness as I considered calling it a day and learning some other time. Craig held his video camera in my direction giving me the thumbs up. Then I remembered, I won't have another time like this. I put my arms up in that arrowhead position, placing palm on top of backhand, and proceeded to dive into water, head first, for the first time ever. It was amazing. The tragedy is that Craig is a goon and totally pressed record right when my feet entered the water. Worst photographer/cinematographer ever lol.

We crossed the border after our little swim and lunch at the beach. Crossing a border is always frustrating without a student visa as a student. I'm not quite sure why the director of my school did not have us get one, but it really does cause a problem lol. "What are you doing here?" "I'm with a study-tour group, we're just touring the land." "So you study here?" "Well, I'm touring right now." "Where do you stay?" "At the American Institute in Jerusalem." "So you're studying here, why don't you have a student visa?" "I don't know." "Alright, I'll ... blahblahblahblah get a student visa." Dumbest thing ever. So I got out of that, and we all found a taxi driver and bartered with him to take us from the border to Sinai, and then take us the next morning at 11:30 from Sinai to Nueva, and from Nueva back to the border at 3:30 p.m. We got him down to 800 Pounds, which is roughly 160 dollars. There were 8 of us, so it was 20 dollars each. If you do the math of all the miles (or kilometers) we drove in that time, you'd realize that this is RIDICULOUSLY cheap!!!

Tourists in Egypt are blessed with the Tourist Police of the country. We were accompanied by a man dressed quite well, hair slicked back, gun at his side, all the while we were in Egypt (except for the hike). We weren't even charged for his services! Really, we weren't put into a position to need his services, fortunately.

We arrived at the foot of Sinai Mountain around 6pm. We got settled into a Bedouin village named Fox Camp. It cost 15 pounds to stay there a night, and 25 pounds for a meal (Remember, 5 pounds to 1 dollar). We ate and went into their little town and hung out until 8 and went to bed. I met a guy named Muhammad and spoke with him a little bit, sharing the Gospel with him. I did not, however, have a Bible on me, so I'm not sure whether or not he will think about it - it is times like these where I realize even more that it is the Holy Spirit, and not I, that does the work.

We woke up at 1:45 a.m. on Saturday to trek up Mount Sinai. Our taxi driver was awake and prepared to take us a little closer than we already were. A guide named Solemon (yes with an e) was going to take us up the mountain for free (I'm not quite sure how legitimate that was) but he ended up being left behind. A mass of people stormed in front of us as we got closer. Hundred of people, maybe thousands, all prepared to climb this 3 hour path up the mountain. We wanted to be among the first up there, so we marched on making haste. It was a tremendously tiring hike, especially at such an early hour.

Every step of the way, we were dodging humans and camels alike. Dozens of Arabs shouting, "Camel!" at us in attempts to get some cash. The camels made some of the funkiest gargling, bubbling noises I have ever heard in my life. It sounded like the water was escaping from one hump to another, forcing bubbles of air out of their mouth and flabbing there lips with the force. There were shops set up all of the way, including at the very top. We arrived at the peak, where both a mosque and a chapel stand, around 5 in the morning or so. Hundreds of people were already atop the mountain, causing plenty of commotion. More Arabs were there offering blankets in the same annoying broken Enlish. I only say annoying because when you hear the same tone of voice in the sound of a question, peaking at a weird falsetto in offer to snag some money from you, it becomes terribly annoying.

We climbed a fence and got on top of the very unsturdy chapel roof. You could tap your finger on the plaster and hear a thump. And here, some losers decided to follow us and jumped from the side of the building into the center of the roof, one after another, as we crept lightly along the sides lest we would fall. Fortunately, it was more sturdy than it felt, and it held all of us. Looking down, you could see hundreds of feet of drop-off right in front of you. We eagerly awaited the sunrise, which was every bit of what it is cracked up to be. The great flame arose over the mountains, shedding light upon the land, illuminating every cleft and crevise by it's shadow being surrounded by light.

We departed from there, descending down the 3750 steps of Repentence - and believe me, at that point I was almost repenting the beating my body was taking. I'm just kidding, it was really worth it, and my legs held up better than I anticipated. We actually kind of off-staired it on the way down. We climbed down the rocks and boulders for some extra fun, all the way to St. Katherines Monastary. Apparently, the burning bush from 3200 years survived all of those years, and is conveniently placed in the monastary on a ledge along the wall. I'll tell you what, I did not even waste my time taking a picture of this fallacy that people flocked to just touch for a second. Sorry, but that is just stupid.

We went on from there back to the camp where we slept to gather the rest of our belongings. We left around 11am to go to the shore at Nueva. The drive through the desert was no better than the first one, though we did hit 150 kilometers per hour. Our body gaurd friend took a picture of the speedometer as we went, which totally encouraged me to do the same haha.

We arrived at the beach of Nueva around 1 pm on Saturday. We ate lunch at a decent place that had absolutely great pizza. I am seriously still shocked from how good it was. This beach had much more sand, and a much better sight in all directions. Goggles, a snorkel, and flippers awaited us at the beach, where I had my first experience looking at a reef fifty feet out from the shore. It was amazing. The spikey, black sea urchins were huge and spread out everywhere. The jellyfish, countless in number, floated by me, one after another. The fish poked their heads in and out of the sea floor, which was only 4 feet below me, and at points not even that far. Craig took a lot of pictures of the fish and sea creatures, which I still have to snag from him. After I got out, I saw an enormous school of fish right near the shoreline. It was unfortunate that Craig had just gone back out to find a shark when that school appeared (he was unsuccessful in finding a shark).

We left the beach at 3:30, as planned, and spent the next 8 hours travelling back to our home in Jerusalem. What an amazing trip!!

A 1200 foot drop from sea level!

I really had no idea what I was getting myself into when I agreed to run up Masada. I hadn’t even reached the half-way point when I just about keeled over with the pungent taste of iron under my tongue. Prior to my endeavor, I looked upon Masada in amazement; following the jaunt up the hill, I looked upon Herod who built it and the Romans who overtook the fortress in amazement. Oh, I also looked upon it in disgust as Craig vomited because of his valiant effort to break Jeremy Heikenen’s record of two minutes and forty seconds. He was 32 seconds short. It was amazing that I was 1200 feet above the base of the fortress built into the cliff (that is a popular number around here), yet I was at sea level.

We looked over the site and discussed the details of Josephus’ account and the archaeological evidence that was contrary to his claims. The story told by Josephus was an honorable one, or at least it was in Roman culture. It was a popular thing to swipe away the bragging rights of an enemy by falling on one’s own sword in the Roman culture. However, in Jewish culture, that was not a very prominent defense against an enemy.

Eleazar gave a powerful speech in Josephus’ depiction of the siccaris against the Roman soldiers. Herod had built this fortress/palace in his megalomania in order to perhaps allow his people to live vicariously through him, despite their poverty. After his death in 4 B.C., he passed it along to his son, Archilleus, who made his father actually look reasonable. He was later banished by Caesar into the Siberia of Rome, southern France. The Siccari were radical assassins of the zealots who killed Jewish people that cooperated with the Romans. They took control over Masada, and eventually, the Romans, led by Silva, decided to remove this faction.It took place during August, perhaps the absolute worst time to do anything in the land. A siege ramp was built, along with many encampments below, to attack the monstrosity of Masada. Eleazar put his faith in God’s deliverance, but this faith was to no avail. Soon the siege ramp reached the top, the fires of war blazed on the wall. An east wind suddenly pushed the wind directly into the Romans ramp, causing great damage. A glimpse of hope was in the eyes of Eleazar and his men. That glimpse was soon shattered as the wind quickly reversed its direction into the walls of Masada. Josephus does not tell his readers that there was a second siege ramp on the northern end of the fortress. His account glorifies the Jews but is completely biased, as is most propaganda. The Jews were not suicidal; they fought to the death. The second siege ramp gives evidence of this.

My second trip to the Dead Sea this semester was not as good as the first one. I had a couple more scrapes and sore spots than last time, and salt, particularly Dead Sea salt, is not a pleasant thing to put on any sort of wound. The beach was not as good as the beach at Ein Gedi Spa, but it was still awesome to float in the water with a big limestone rock on my stomach. I had one drop of that water splash onto my tongue, and I was trying to spit the salt out for the next fifteen minutes. It was once called the Healing Sea, but I think the change of name was very appropriate.

The Ein Gedi Springs made everything I have done in Israel so far seem miniscule. The beautiful fresh water rolling down the wadi was like paradise in that land. Just to the east is the Dead Sea, and to the west is the Judean wilderness. It is absolutely surrounded by desolate land, except for Jericho which is quite a hike to the north. We jumped into the water, went under the glistening waterfalls, and enjoyed every second of it.

Our last stop at Qumran was actually pretty painful. Wind blowing from the west was spitting dust and small pebbles into us as we observed the caves and city in which the community of Qumran lived. Because of rain that fell earlier in the day, the wadi had just been doused with water, making it somewhat unstable. So we were unable to go up into the caves, which was disappointing. More disappointing was the fact that all of the caves have been thoroughly explored - I was hoping that there was still work to be done so that I could get in on it. This picture is cave 4!

The tangibility of the land.

The warm weather is blowing my mind here in Israel. I am so thankful I can skip a winter in the cold Poconos. When we drove to our first stop at Tel Beer-sheva, I ignorantly thought to myself, “What kind of desert has so much green plant life?” I had forgotten for a moment that I am experiencing the warm winter of the southern part of Israel, thus I had also forgotten that it is the rain season. Abraham would go to Gerar in the summertime due to famine, and I do not blame him one bit. If the winter is this hot, I cannot imagine the heat that the desert pumps out in the summer.


As usual, learning about the Tel Beer-Sheva itself was enlightening. Pieces of the puzzle continued to be put together, giving me such a better view of the Bible. Beer-sheva is placed conveniently in the fork of the Nahal Hebron and Nahal Beer-sheva, and since travel would have been along the bottom of wadis, we know that these were significant local/international trade routes. The international trade route through the Negev demands that there be a city to moderate trade through the area; Beer-sheva served as that very city. 1 Kings 9 gives us an illustration of its importance. Solomon has control over the main gateways to the coast: Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer. But in addition to these strategic cities, it is noted that he had control of Tamar, implying that he had control over the route down to it as well. Beer-sheva, west of this route, and evidently also controlled by Solomon, is a strategic city linking Tamar to the Coastal Plain as well as Egypt. It is amazing that out of the lowly city of Jerusalem, this broad area throughout the Land Between had been controlled: from Hazor to Tamar, from Megiddo to Beth-Shan, from Gezer to Jericho, and all that was in between .


A small note concerning the horns on the altar. I had never understood the purposes of those horns until today. We saw a model of the type of altar that the Israelites would have used (though it was Ashler Masonry, and the stones were actually supposed to be uncut). The simplicity of it is somewhat embarrassing: they are for tying the animal up. It was also a symbol for God’s protection over the people, but regardless, I probably would not have guessed it.


Tel Arad was a city in the middle of nowhere. We looked at the pool where all of the six to eight inches of rainfall per year would drain, and I was shocked to learn that the occupation of the city lasted for more than half a millennia. The people built the city so that it contained slopes leading down to a large pool that collected rainfall. It was somewhat ingenious. Arad was strategic for the route down from Hebron to Tamar. Anyone (like Solomon) who had control of this would have benefited greatly from it. The trade from the coming from the south towards Egypt, the Coastal Plain, Israel or Syria and beyond would have gone through this city (or gone through a much more challenging route). The remains there were among the best that I have been blessed to see. I have realized today that the reason why the biblical events are becoming more tangible is that the places that we are observing have much less civilization surrounding them - I appreciated that about this site.


Both our visit to the Nabatean site of Avdat and the Mahktesh Ramon were absolutely extraordinary. The Nabateans were absolute geniuses that built dams across wadis in order to turn six to eight inches of water per year to twenty-four to thirty inches, the same amount of rain fall as Jerusalem. This idea was incredible, giving water in over a half of million acres of land in the combined six Nabatean cities. One may wonder how it was possible for the Spice Trade from the south to make it through the desert under such harsh conditions; the answer lies with the secrets of the Nabateans who thoroughly persevered with this method of water gathering.



The Super Bowl, simply put, was the greatest view of any land that I have ever had in my life. The broad, water-eroded crater, the biggest in the world, exposed the volcanic rock of basalt, 1200 feet down. In a matter of five feet off of the cliff, I would have been plummeting all that way down - a straight drop. Fortunately, when me and Craig were taking pictures, we only had one close call...

A mall in the Negev better than Stroudsburg's

Along the Wadi Sorek, we followed the round about way south/southeast of Zobah. It is far away from the natural routes, not even close to a town. Because of the wadis and steep slopes, the travel through this was near impossible for heavy loads. I had not yet considered living conditions outside of towns or how cave houses actually work. It was fascinating to see the bricks outside of the caves and the level of comfort one could find within the cave. Being hidden from that blistering sun (with which I had way too much bonding time for my pale skin) would have been great. Journeying through those caves was a blast; I hope to find more to “shplunk” while I am here. We were given great illustrations from the Bible concerning the land: 1 Kings 4, Psalms 80, Isaiah 5, and John 15 gave us great insight for our location.

Beth Shemesh, or House of the Sun, was where we saw the set of the Samson story. I think that this section, as well as the time looking over the Elah Valley, has been the most realistic experience so far. It is hard for me to come to grips with the fact that I am in the land of the Bible. I have been here for about a month and a half, yet so much of what I have seen seems surreal. But this experience was the most tangible. I could see the story in such better light, as if it were popping off of the paper and making the story visible in 3D. I cannot see the individuals in the story, but I can feel the movement and tension between the Philistines and Danites in that area. The story of Samson is always entertaining, regardless of how well I can picture it, but these glimpses into the story certainly help. I could literally see the area of Philistine occupation, as well as where Minoah moved his pawn up one space.

In the course of this story, we find that the Philistines had control over the territory allotted to the tribe of Dan. The tension here was tremendous. The Philistines in the plains saw the hill country people of Dan as hillbillies, and the Danites looked upon the Philistines as a bunch of yuppies. Minoah, the father of Samson, subtly pushed forward into the land. He wasn't a warrior, but he was making the move regardless. We were told that it is like in a game of chess, where the pawns can move one space, or you could use a queen to jump the entire board or something. He moved up one space. Posting pictures in this would be absolutely absurd, but I'm going to do it a little bit anyway. The first picture is overlooking a hazy Timnah toward the West, and beyond what could be seeing was Ashkalon and Gaza and the Mediterranean. The second picture, North of where I was standing, is a series of hills extending into the plain from the Hill Country. The hill furthest to the right was the place where Minoah settled. Explaining all of the Samson story to you would be somewhat arduous, so I won't do that. But from my location, I could see most of the movement throughout the story of Samson.

I felt that same tangibility as we looked over the Elah Valley from Azekah. We were viewing, as Dr. Wright put it, “the Quakah in Azekah.” Understanding the geopolitical circumstances between Saul in Gibeah and the Philistines coming from the coastal plain was great. It is like seeing all of those puzzle pieces scattered all over your table be put together before you. I would have really liked to get into the Elah Valley to reenact this scenario - preferably, Craig would have been Samson, and we would have needed to get a small child to throw a rock at him. But it would have been a lot of fun. Bethlehem was the only city stopping the Philistines, and that is why the sons of Jesse were up on the front line. From our angle, and from viewing the maps before us, it was easy to see the entire scenario. We were once again in the center of it all, giving us an open view of each little facet of the narrative. This picture is a view of the Elah Valley.

Running up the siege ramp toward Lachish made by Sennacherib, Craig, J.E., Andrew, Jason, and I stormed forward to lay waste the city as it was done thousands of years ago. We may have only had sticks, and nothing to scare away any enemies other than Andrews back hair, but we made a valiant effort. The desperate measures taken by those soldiers in Lachish to build a counter ramp was terribly futile. It must have been a horrifying thing for those men to know that there was so little hope. There was little to see in the remains of Lachich, mostly just grass. But the story is epic!

Our stop at Gerar was refreshing to my sun-burnt skin. The cool breeze and beautiful scenery was pleasant and comforting. We were in a broad open basin looking at fields and fields of farmland, recalling the story of Abraham and his covenant between him and Abimelech. He would come to the land of Gerar in times of famine, most likely during the scorching summer in Beer-Sheva.

Beer-Sheva turned out to be nothing like what I had expected. The modern city was completely westernized, right down to the Tower Records in the mall. In fact, its mall was bigger and better than the mall in Stroudsburg near my home, Bushkill, Pennsylvania. My presupposition was that it would be a city somewhat like what the remains in the Tel Beer-sheva, brick upon brick but with some color and plaster covering the walls. I was so far off. I guess it goes to show how completely ignorant I am of the world in which I live, though what I have seen in Jerusalem is not quite as westernly extravagant as Beer-sheva.