Jerusalem Arrival

Friday, September 3

Well after a 10 hour flight to Cairo, another flight to Sharm el-Shiekh, 2 hr. drive to Mt. Sinai, 2 hr. drive to Eilat, and 4 hours through the Negev desert we've arrived in Jerusalem. The city that has not seen peace since King Solomon and the holy land for Christians, Muslims, and Jews. The drive through the desert today was long and pretty bumpy. Fortunately we broke it up with a few stops along the way. The first was at King Solomon's pillars which is in an Israeli National Park. The pillars are actually mountains that have been shaped over millions of years. While they were pretty impressive I must say it's tough to beat what we saw in Petra. We were all ready to get through our stops quickly and arrive into Jerusalem. Our second stop was at the only naturally made canyon in the world according to our guide. Gotta admit this place was pretty impressive. Reminded me of being in Switzerland and viewing the glacier at the Top of the World minus the glacier cutting through the mountains of course (this is the pic of me with the Diet Coke).

We didn't spend too much time here and after a few quick pictures were on our way to Ben Gurion's final home in the desert. For those that don't know (including me before today), Ben Gurion is the pioneer behind the creation of the Israeli state and their first Prime Minister. Upon retiring around 70 he decided to spend the remaining years of his life in the Negev desert. He felt that the survival of Israel was dependent upon Israel expanding into the desert. He understood that this land was inhabited by many other people and that long-term survival for the Jewish people was in the desert. His house here is still in the exact same condition as it was when he passed away in the 1970's. They've built a university around his house and the primary studies there are focused on solar technology and how to survive in the desert. There is also a small military training camp where high school students are required to spend 1 week to prepare them for enrollment in the military when they turn 18. All Israelis (men and women) are required to serve 2 years in the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces).

We rolled into Jerusalem around 4 p.m. local time and checked in at our hotel near the Old City. At first glance Jerusalem is a very impressive city. It sits on top of a hill and from what I can tell so far it's very hilly throughout. There is new construction and developments visible on the outskirts of town. Apparently this was to help build up the infrastructure around the city and protect it from future attacks. Our Israeli tour guide is not nearly as engaging as our Egyptian guides but is obviously very knowledgeable. You can't help but sense the Israeli country pride. It's interesting being in such a holy land with stories that date back thousands of years yet Israel's history is shorter than the U.S. declaring independence in 1948. There have also been additional wars and conflicts highlighted by the Arab (Egypt, Syria & Jordan) -Iraeli 6 day war in 1967. You can still see remnants of this war driving into the city. There are dilapidated military vehicles sitting along the road into Jerusalem. Our guide told us that 6000 Jews died in the fight for Jerusalem during this war and there is no doubt that more fighting is likely inevitable.

Tomorrow we head to the Dead Sea, Masada (the last stronghold for the Zealots in their struggle against the Romans), and King Herod's palace. King Herod is infamous in the Bible as the one who requested that Magi seek out the newborn King of the Jews so that he could pay homage to this King. However, Herod, the King of the Jews, true intentions were to kill this newborn King to protect his rule. However, the Magi and Joseph were warned in their dreams about Herod's true intentions and fled Bethlehem for Egypt.

We've got four nights in Jerusalem and a very full calendar each day so will try to keep everyone updated throughout. Hope you are enjoying the blog!

Ryan