Sept 8th,9th and 10th

This is the Dome of the Rock. This is where the Jews and Christians believe Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrafice. The Muslims believe this is where Muhammad was taken up into heaven when he was standing on the rock. How convenient. Now everyone is fighting over the land.

This is the newer Mosque that the Muslims built on top of the Old Mosque which is still in use. The Dome of the Rock is directly behind me when I took this picture. This is the second most important spot in the world to the Muslims, first is Mecca.

This is the Mount of Temptation. Also known as the West Bank area. We took this photo from Jericho. The tour guide said that if we were to walk around on our own in this area, we might get kidnapped.

This is the view of Old Jerusalem form the Mount of Olives.

This is me flouting in the Dead Sea, enjoyng life... You actually float. It is impossible to drownd in these waters. It is the weirdest feeling. It feels like you are floating in warm oil. The water is 35-40% salt and the rest is water.

This is Heidi and I during some pagan purification practices. Just joking, but they make bank off of selling this mud in cleansing and moistering beauty products.

Here is a guy on the side of the road walking his daily driver.

This is at Qum'ran where the Dead Sea scrolls were found.

This is the anceint fortress of king Herod at Masada. These are his store rooms which could supply the entire fortress with food for over a year.

We have been spending so much time in the Old Jerusalem lately. There is so much to do here. You really need a month here to see everything.

We have visited every quarter of Old Jerusalem, Muslim quarter (where we are staying), the Jewish quarter (which is newly rebuild, and very clean), the Christian quarter (filled with churches) and the Armenian quarter.

We also went to Masada, where Herod had a fortress on a plateau that was taken over by the Romans after the sack of Jerusalem in 70-72 a.d. We went to the Dead Sea which was the definite high-light of this short trip south. We went to the famous West Bank to visit the old and new city of Jericho. The old one is still covered by sand but they know where it is.

We went to the Mount of Olives that had a beautiful view of Jerusalem.

The next day we met up with a Muslim we met in the hostel the night before who has been living in Jerusalem for his whole life. He showed us all around the city and inside the temple gates.

Will post pictures and more info later. We have a lot of things we are too excited to do here and we don't have much time left.