Judean Desert & Dead Sea

Between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea lies a vast, barren wilderness where prophets sought God, rebels hid from empires, and monks found silence. It falls from the Judean hills to the lowest place on earth, and its few springs — Ein Gedi, Ein Prat, Einot Tsukim and the streams of Wadi Qelt — draw green ribbons of reeds, waterfalls and ibex through the brown desert. David hid in its caves from King Saul, the Song of Songs praises the vineyards of Ein Gedi, whose balsam perfume was worth more than its weight in gold, and the road through Wadi Qelt is the road of the Good Samaritan.

Herod built his fortress-palace on Masada, where the last rebels against Rome made their stand. Jewish rebels of the Bar Kokhba revolt left letters and coins in caves above the springs, and at Qumran a Bedouin shepherd found the oldest biblical manuscripts in existence. From the 4th century, thousands of monks followed them into the wilderness — at its peak the desert held over 70 monasteries, and Mar Saba has been inhabited for more than 1,500 years. Below it all lies the Dead Sea itself, one of the saltiest bodies of water on earth, and slowly disappearing.