A Few More Israel Photos

The photos have been uploaded to the Israel blogs - thanks for your patience :^) We finally had high speed (well somewhat high speed) internet at home so hopefully we'll get things posted a bit sooner. Since we can only add 4 photos per blog entry, I thought I add a few more here:




View of Temple Mount and the "Dome of the Rock" from the old Venetian walls (ramparts).








These Palestinians were prevented from entering the Jerusalem's Old City to attend Muslim services at the Dome of the Rock. Due to security concerns Israel was only allowing males over the age of 45 in - under the assumption that younger males were potentially more unruly. This is the closest they could get...so that is where they prayed.







This is the view from Masada (the Dead Sea is to the upper right in this photo (you'll see it better in the blogs below)). This just gives you the idea of how dry and barren it is in the region. King Herod and later the zealot's whom made Masada famous from withstanding a Roman siege for what some say years, channeled water from nearby mountains to fill giant cisterns carved into Masada.












Just me covered in mud in route to the showers. I thought the classy plastic tubs of dead sea mud were a nice touch to our "Day at the Spa."