Photos, Part 3

Here's the final installment of photos of Israel from my trip. Parts 1 and 2 are here and here.

Having slept at a Bedouin camp in the desert, we awoke at 4:00 a.m. to climb Masada for sunrise.



Here's a shot of Masada itself.



We then hiked at Ein Gedi, up to the waterfall.



After Ein Gedi, we drove north to a beach at the Dead Sea. Floating in the Dead Sea is even stranger than it's made out to be. You guys will understand what I'm saying when I tell you that one of the sensations is a little like putting Ben-Gay in your jockstrap. Dead Sea mud is supposed to have healthful properties. Here's a photo of mud-bathers at the Dead Sea.



We spent a couple of nights in Tzfat (a/k/a Zefat), which is up in the mountains in northern Israel. This is a view from our hotel.



In Tzfat, the wall of a building shows damage from shelling during the 1948 war.



We visited soldiers at the Lebanese border and were shown the border by a member of a kibbutz at that location. We were literally 20 yards from Lebanon, separated by a dirt road and a fence. We were shown the drug crops being grown by Hizbullah-supported farmers on the other side and the Hizbullah observation posts at the top of the hills.



Later, back in Jerusalem, we watched from our hotel window as a robot checked out a suspicious package on the street below.



Last, here's Hurva Arch in the Old City.