Day 7 - Ein Gedi, Qumran, Chapel of the Shepherd's Field, Church of the Nativity and Jerusalem!

Today we checked out of our hotel and made our one of our final desert visits to Ein Gedi.  This is one of our favorite places as you get to hike through a large valley with rocks the size of trucks and small houses.  Ein Gedi is where Saul was pursuing David and to stand back and picture this is so amazing.  On the second leg of the hike, a large spring right in the middle of the desert comes from the ground and makes Davids waterfall. 

     

  

Just up the road a few miles we stopped at the site of Qumran. This site if where the Dead Sea scrolls were discovered. In 1947 a Bedouin shepherd boy tending his flock tossed a rock into a cave and broke a clay pot.  In that pot and many others found in 11 caves were scrolls from ancient times.  Before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest known manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible dated to the 10th century AD. The Dead Sea Scrolls include over 225 copies of biblical books that date up to 1,200 years earlier.

   


This afternoon we arrived in Jerusalem! We will stay here for four days until the conclusion of our trip.  We gathered at the Chapel of the Shepherd's Field in a small room cut into a cave.  Joe read of the birth of Jesus Christ and we celebrated by singing Silent Night.  Looking around the cave we could see prayers scribed on paper and ticked away in cracks of the cave.

  










To further celebrate Christs birth we visited the Church of the Nativity.  It was very busy here and the energy level picked up from our leisure time at the Sea of Galilee. Many tour groups, visitors and even a wedding were being held at here when we visited.  Mickey our tour guide was able to find time to go over the history and allow time for us to take photos. 

    

After checking into the Dan Panorama and having dinner a few of us walked into the old city for a view of the Western Wall at night.  I was able to take a few pictures of the old city walls but due to Shabbat I could not take pictures there.  Shabbat is a day of rest for the Jewish people and taking photos on this day is considered work.