Day 5 Israel Part 2: Herod’s Spring & the Dead Sea

Now leaving Bet She’an we shortly came to Herod’s Spring.  Now after the experiencing the vast ocean of amazing ruins at Bet She’an; Herod’s Spring was not even so much as a puddle. There was almost no water at all.  But that’s OK.  It was still interesting.

Me at Herod's Spring

This is where Gideon’s army of 32,000 men were tried and tested for war with the Midianites.  Eventually Gideon took only 300 men with him.

From Herod’s Spring we headed to the Dead Sea.  However, because of rains (so far it has been raining every day) the road we needed to take was washed out.  We had to take a long detour around this problem.

 

From the start of our descent on Hwy 31 towards the Dead Sea, Jimmy our bus driver told us that there were 126 curves to maneuver. I have never traveled on such a winding continuous road.  The descent took about a half hour and dropped in elevation 1200 meters which is almost 4,000 feet!

Camels as seen along the side of the road on our decent to the Dead Sea

View approaching the Dead Sea

Now the Dead Sea is 400 meters below sea level!  This makes it the lowest point on dry land.  It is up to 304 meters deep and the water being hyper saline makes floating easy.

Railing used to walk into the Dead Sea for swimming

Me in the Dead Sea and yes it's only 12 degrees Celsius with people watching, dressed in winter coats!
(my hands are showing rust from the railing I held as I walked into the water)

For thousands of years people have come here.  King David used it as a place of refuge and Herod the Great used it as a health resort.   Now I can add my name to the list of visitors to the Dead Sea! It was cold but there is no way I was coming here and not floating in the Dead Sea.....I did it!

Our Hotel at the Dead Sea

When we arrived at our hotel it was raining!  Remember that this is the desert. This is very "unusual", our guide Shimon told us. (It would become the theme of our trip as we would experience many more "unusual" weather occurrences.)

Blessings!