Day 8 Part 4 Qumran

The daily feeling of not getting to spend enough time at some fantastic site again hits me hard.  Thinking through all the places where we have been I wonder what I would eliminate in order to spend more time at any of the other sites.  I can only think of one or two I would have given up in order to stay longer somewhere else.  The rub must be the excitement of the present feels greater than the discovery of where you haven't been yet.  One bird in the hand versus two in the bush scenario I guess.

We board the buses and begin retracing our route back up the shore of the Dead Sea.  Masada will be the furthest south we will go in Israel.  As we head north occasionally we pass what were once "shore side" Dead Sea resorts.  Where once the waters of the Dead Sea lapped within yards of their lawn chairs and umbrellas the water line is now up to a mile away.  Their guests now take golf carts down to the water line in order to float in the brine.  I can imagine it takes its toll on their business, they didn't look too busy. That's what happens when the Dead Sea loses 10 feet of depth per year for the past 14 years I guess.  Not only is this area hot and dry and also experiencing less than usual rainfall, but the waters of the Jordan River are so diverted for agriculture and drinking water for the rest of Israel that it simply cannot replenish the evaporating waters of the Dead Sea.  

The whine of the diesel engine indicates that we are slowing down in what looks to be the middle of nowhere.  We turn off the road and rumble down a gravel road that seems fairly unimproved to an equally unimproved parking area.  I wonder what is up.  We debus and feel the heat of this place.  We are at a part of the Dead Sea where the road hugs the mountain range closer and the shore of the sea is further away.  Here we are surrounded by what looks like thorny, dry desert scrub.

Without a lot of explanation, we all begin a hike down a dirt path through the brush.  I reach for my new bottle of warm water and take an long drink.  I really feel like pouring it over my head but it is probably more valuable as a thirst quencher.  We walk for a fair amount and finally reach a pond of water that at its deepest point looks to be a little over a foot deep.  

It seems like there should be no water here at all.  We gather under the little shade the scrub offers to hear a lecture.

The point of this little excursion is to demonstrate Deuteronomy 11:
Deut. 11:11 (NKJV)  
    but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven, 

The source of the this pond of water is the result of the near mountain range "drinking" the rain.  Much like the headwaters of the Jordan River at the Temple of Pan at Mt. Hermon, the water does not run off so much on the surface of the mountains, but the water penetrates down into the rock, filters thoroughly through it and emerges in places like this.  We must be at least a couple of miles from the slope of the mountains at this point.  I wonder how many years it must take for a drop of rain to make its underground journey to finally re-emerge.  There must be a resupply of this water enough to sustain this little pond in this heat and arid environment.  

As we are sitting and listening the the lecture, I am looking into the water and I am sure that I see a fish.  This couldn't be?  How would fish get here?  How would a fish survive?  I keep looking, sure enough, more fish.  They looks somewhat like catfish although I have never actually seen a catfish.  They swim in and out of the reeds that grow on the backside of the pond.  Amazing.  

I wonder if the water is drinkable.  What if you were lost in this place and stumbled upon this water?  I wonder if it is salty like the Dead Sea or brackish or fresh.  I'll never know.  

We are feeling our hunger pangs as we head back to the buses.  We are told we will eat lunch at Qumran.  The place they found the Dead Sea Scrolls?  Yes.  There is actually a community of Palestinians at Qumran who live there year around. 

As we get back on the highway someone asks if the actual caves that the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in are where we will be eating lunch.  We are asked, "do you want to see them?"  Yes!  is the collective answer.  Our guide instructs the driver to pull over on the side of the road.  We quickly do so near what looks like a dry wash.  Not 100 yards from the edge of the road our guide points to two caves in the side of the rocks.  There, those are the caves, he says.

What?  Just right there?  Just off the side of the road?  No tourist facilities?  No tours?  Just those little caves right there?  Yep.  I am kind of amazed and disappointed all at the same time.  For some reason I had thought of these caves as high up on the mountainside, inaccessible, hidden, hard to see.  Nope. They are right there by the side of the road and nobody seems to care.  We stop only long enough for a few snaps of our digital cameras and we head on to the community of Qumran.  

For being the site of the most amazing treasure trove of biblical and extra-biblical materials ever discovered it sure isn't celebrated.  Not even a parking lot and a sign.  You would just drive right past it without ever knowing if someone didn't point it out to you.  Maybe there isn't a lot to see and maybe I am the only one who cares, but I think they missed something of interest here.

Not long from our view of the caves hear the diesel engines whine at a higher pitch as they slow down to pull up into the Qumran community.  It is quite nice looking.  Palm trees and paved streets, little buildings and picnic tables.  Quite a contrast to the rest of the area we are traveling through.  

We debus at a building that is set up like a cafeteria.  There are four lines that allow us to access the two buffets on both sides so our large group gets through quickly.  Lunch is $14 US.   A little more expensive than most of the places we have been.  I am anxious to see what the offerings are.  Lots of salads of one sort or another, lots of salads, and more salads.  I take a little of some of them, but I am looking for something a little more substantial.  Right near the end, there are a few choices of main dishes.  I don't recognize anything.  Not even the staples of schnitzel and falafal.  I take a couple of servings of what is there.  I wonder if the other buffet is offering something different.  Oh, drinks are extra.  I've got to pay for a bottled drink.  $2 US.  We sit down near the windows on long benches/tables just like we had in junior high.  The view is amazing, the food, not so much.  This was probably the most expensive lunch of the tour and it rates, "unremarkable".  Whoever runs this establishment doesn't know about the American "all-you-can-eat" tradition on buffets.  I don't know if I would have gone back or not.  

I return my tray and wander around a bit.  It sure is beautiful here in a desert, barren sort of way.  At least I am not hungry at this point and we are encouraged to board our buses so we can move on to the next destination/activity, floating in the Dead Sea!