Israel and The Palestinian Territories

Israel is a land that many relate to as a holy place with endless historical and biblical sites.  It hosts so many that we could spend forever talking about it, so we'll just leave you to your own studies for that. As for us, we loved wandering around in Jerusalem's old town through windy streets, markets, and arches. We'll try to share a few pictures we shot while we were there.

Above is the famous Muslim Mosque, Dome of the Rock. Hundreds of years after the second Jewish Temple was destroyed by the Romans on site, the Muslims moved in and built this Mosque. To the Jews, Muslims, and Christians, this site is celebrated as the place where Abraham went to sacrifice his son. The Jewish still yearn for their temple at this location and congregate at the western wall of the temple site, known as the "Western Wailing Wall." See the picture below:

This olive tree on the Mount of Olives is almost 2000 years old. It is possible that it is in the location of the Garden of Gethsemane.

The site below is possibly Golgatha. If you look closely you can see a face in the wall. (Golgatha means "place of the skull").

This place is known as "The Garden Tomb," one of the sıtes where many believe Jesus was placed after his crucifixion. There is another site in Jerusalem in the Church of The Holy Sepulchre that many others believe was his burial location.

We took some time to travel to Bethlehem to see the possible birth site of Jesus, pictured below.

Passing through the west bank was very interesting. The Palestinians have painted graffiti all over the wall, expressing their discontent with what they see as an occupation of their homeland by the Western-backed Israelis. We got an earful from both sides on the issues.

The picture below was painted on the wall of a wall around a Christmas Tree, which may seem to tie into the wall around Bethlehem.

For our final stop in the region, we thought it would be fun to visit the lowest land on Earth at the Dead Sea (1349 feet below sea level) since we had been in the shadows of the highest point on earth looking up to Mount Everest. Rusty was able to lather up in the supposedly healthy mud and go for a salty float. Kelsi was only able to go in up to her ankles with her healing knee since the salt water has stories of intense stinging on open wounds. The ocean water during diving was enough sting for Kelsi, so she'll reminisce in the Great Salt Lake one day. (Her knee is fine though - as some readers had expressed concern - thank you for caring :). We enjoyed watching one lady swimming who started splashing nervously when she struggled to get her feet back under her. The salt is so thick it's hard to even stand back up once you're floating.

Rusty trying to sink:

Dead Sea mud is sold in packages as a rather expensive cosmetic mask. Rusty wants to point out to his mom that he has finally managed to gain back a little weight around his middle, although it seemed to disappear once he went swimming again...