Elevation Drop

In a matter of days, we unintentionally traveled from Mt Everest Base Camp, close to the highest point on earth, to the absolute lowest spot, the Dead Sea, at 1,414 feet BELOW sea level.  We personally plummeted 19,012 feet! WOW!  If we were Grandma Shirley, this was our one and only opportunity to run and clock our fastest mile.  Less athletically minded, we took a more leisurely approach to the altitude drop.  We first explored the intricate mosaics in Madaba and then traveled up to Mt Nebo.  We walked in Moses’ footsteps to view the promise land, which in all honesty, looked a bit smoggy and bleak.  Keeping the pilgrimage to the Holy Land streak alive, we dipped a toe in the River Jordan and visited the baptismal site of Jesus.  We noted the fastest way to rise to the heavens is to swim across the River Jordan to the West Bank, where curiously, machine-gunned Israeli soldiers stood guard.  Next, we learned the term “wadi”—a dry-ish valley or ravine in the desert—and began our exploration of the first of many more to come.  Pita bread became a near constant fixture in our hands as we continue to eat buckets of the creamy and delicious Jordanian hummus.   

Exploring Wadi Bin Hammad

Maqlubeh: rice cooked with vegetables and served upside down

 
 

St. George Church: oldest map of Palestine in existence crafted in AD 560

St. George Church in Madaba

 
 

Madaba’s famed mosaics

Expectations of Mt Nebo’s summit

 
 

Actual summit (after being jaded by Nepal’s summits)

View of “Promise Land” from Mt. Nebo

 
 

View from Mt. Nebo

River Jordan

 
 

Ancient Mosaic?

Site of baptism of Jesus

 
 

Shaded hiking trail

Border between Jordan and West Bank

River Jordan and border between Jordan and West Bank

 
 

Toe dipping in the Jordan River

 
 

Signature move and the Dead Sea

 
 

Wadi Bin Hammad