Jordan, Israel, July 14, 2013

I slept the sleep of the dead this last night, and woke, startled, to two telephone alarms going off--my own and Marthe's. Coming alive, I washed and dressed, then went downstairs for a mini-service and Communion in the bar, as it was Sunday. Afterwards, we all had breakfast and then loaded up our bags and got on the bus for a 3-hour ride to the Allenby Bridge / King Hussein Bridge checkpoint between Jordan and Israel. Part of our route took us by the Mujib Nature Reserve in Jordan, the lowest nature reserve in the world, with a spectacular array of scenery near the east coast of the Dead Sea. It is located within the deep Wadi Mujib Gorge, which enters the Dead Sea at 410 meters below sea level. It extends to the Kerak and Madaba Mountains to the north and south, reaching 900 meters above sea level in some places. As we took a brief stop to gaze at the gorge and take photos, I was absolutely mesmerized by it, and would like to enter it in my bucket list for future visit venues, which will also include the desert castles of Jordan, of which there are six east of the capital city of Amman which can be visited in one or two-day loops from the city. Their mosaics, frescoes, stone and stucco carvings and illustrations, inspired by the best Persian and Greco-Roman tradition, manifest life as it was during the 8th c. My bucket list suddenly got longer!!!! We eventually reached the King Hussein Bridge at about 2:00, where Zaid left us. We will miss him! We went through about 5 passport controls and security checks, and our luggage was checked and scanned as well before entering Israel, where we were met by Hani and our driver Samir. Our next stop was Jericho, which is an entirely Palestinian enclave, some parts of which were very poor, with a few areas of poshness thrown in. The area is surrounded by a wilderness-type, baked terrain with a few areas of lush green. In Biblical times there was even less green and more wilderness to be seen--a forbidding crucible of heat and stark, unforgiving beauty. Immediately we felt the undeniable wall of heat descending upon us. This was Jericho, where we first had lunch in a quiet restaurant (lamb and chicken kebabs, great hummus and pita bread as well as several great vegetable salads were on the docket); then went to the archaeological digs at Old Testament Jericho--the site known as Tel es-Sultan, one of the oldest cities in the world. Debris from successive settlements on the site reach a depth of 70 ft. The most impressive feature archaeologists have uncovered is a crude stone wall with a round defensive tower--the oldest city defense system discovered anywhere in the world. Jericho was the first Canaanite city to fall to Joshua and the Israelites after they invaded the Promised Land. Jericho was located about 8 miles west of the Jordan River. Its defeat paved the way for the Israelites to swarm the interior of Canaan on a fierce military campaign to claim the land. While the city Joshua destroyed was never rebuilt, a new city named Jericho was built about 2 miles away from the old site. At this new city, Herod the Great built his winter palace. This second city is known as New Testament Jericho. Here Jesus healed blind Bartimaeus and confronted the tax collector Zacchaeus. The town was also the setting for Christ's famous parable of the Good Samaritan. This kind man came to the aid of a stranger who had been robbed, beaten, and left to die on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. From our vantage point of the Old Testament, we also saw, on the NW side, a high hill known as the Mount of Temptation, the traditional site of Satan's temptation of Jesus at the beginning of His public ministry. Built into the hill is an Eastern Orthodox monastery known as Qarantal (from the Greek word meaning "40," the number of days that Jesus spent in the wilderness). This complex is supposedly built around a cave where Jesus stayed during His 40-day fast. As it was baking outside, our stay at the excavation was about 45 minutes in duration, but I got some really good photos of the monastery. I only wish I had been able to ride the cable car up to the Mount, but that was not to be. We are currently staying at the Intercontinental Hotel in Jericho, and Marthe's and my room faces one of the largest mosques I have ever seen as well as the empty shells of refugee houses in this Palestinian enclave. A real contrast, and one that lingers in the mind and heart. Tomorrow, Qumran, Ein Gedi and Masada, before we set our faces to Jerusalem, as Christ finally did at the end of his ministry and life. As ever, Sylvia