Part 10 - Ein Gedi and the Dead Sea

March 24  - The Dead Sea is 42 miles long and 11 miles wide at its widest point.  It lies almost 1400' below sea level, making it the lowest place on planet earth and still be on dry land.  But it's the salt that makes it unique.  It's eight times saltier than the oceans.  This makes it inhospitable to any form of life, including fish.  But it also makes it incredibly fun to swim, er, float, in.  You feel like a cork that wants to bob to the surface.  I put my legs straight down, and the water was only breast height.

1 Samuel 23:24 So they arose and went to Ziph before Saul. But David and his men were in the Wilderness of Maon, in the plain on the south of Jeshimon.  When Saul and his men went to seek him, they told David. Therefore he went down to the rock, and stayed in the Wilderness of Maon. And when Saul heard that, he pursued David in the Wilderness of Maon.  Then Saul went on one side of the mountain, and David and his men on the other side of the mountain. So David made haste to get away from Saul, for Saul and his men were encircling David and his men to take them.  But a messenger came to Saul, saying, “Hurry and come, for the Philistines have invaded the land!”  Therefore Saul returned from pursuing David, and went against the Philistines; so they called that place the Rock of Escape.  Then David went up from there and dwelt in strongholds at Ein Gedi.

One of the many waterfalls

A series of waterfalls leads up to David's waterfall.  

This picture looks down the wadi toward the Dead Sea

The first waterfall you come to on the trail

The Waterfall of David, the most spectacular