When I wasn't teaching at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, I had plenty of time to wander the country and soak up the culture. I especially enjoyed the deserts, so bleak and beautiful. Once in a while I snapped a photo, some of which are on this page.
Masada
Mount Masada is on the western shore of the Dead Sea, which is at the western end of the Judean Desert. It is the site, according to the Roman historian Flavius Josephus, where after a siege of many months the Roman army defeated the Jews who had fled there following the rebellion of CE 70. Josephus claimed the entire population of about 1,000 committed suicide, but accounts vary and, after all, Josephus was a former Roman soldier.
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Masada 1 |
Masada 2 |
Masada 3 |
Masada 4 |
 |
|||
| Masada 5 |
Judea and Negev Deserts
On one trip I flew with friends to Eilat, which is at the northern tip of the Gulf of Aqaba, surely the best diving and snorkeling waters in the world. We crossed the Negev by bus, winding up the side of an ancient meteor crater in a scary sieve of switchbacks.
I spent a couple of days with friends sampling the deserts of Judea and the Negev. We travelled from Haifa to the Negev and back through the Judean desert to the Dead Sea, then to Ein Gedi, Qumrun (site of the Dead Sea Scrolls), Jerico and Jerusalem.
The desert was starkly beautiful, as long as we steered clear of scorpions and tanked up often with water. I learned you can't swim in the Dead Sea, as it is essentially a chemical soup, but I did manage to float on its surface. Both Jordan and Israel mine the soup. Tourists used the luxury hotel, but we slept in the open.
Somehow I got stung on my right eyelid by a desert insect, but it was painless and I didn't know it. A kibbutznik at Ein Gedi noticed the swelling and snapped my picture.
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Desert 1 |
Desert 2 |
Desert 3 |
Desert 4 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Desert 5 |
Desert 6 |
Desert 7 |
Desert 8 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Desert 9 |
Desert 10 |
Desert 11 |
Desert 12 |
 |
|||
| Desert 13 |
Haifa
Haifa is Israel's San Fransisco and a bustling port city. I met a man in robes of the desert and he asked me a question in Arabic, so I asked him to repeat in English. In a marvellously cultured English accent he asked me the way to the bus station. Cats were everywhere; maybe there was a rodent problem.
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Haifa 1 |
Haifa 2 |
Haifa 3 |
Haifa 4 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Haifa 5 |
Haifa 6 |
Haifa 7 |
Haifa 8 |
 |
|||
| Haifa 9 |
Golan and the Gallilee
In the 1967 war the Israelis defeated the Syrian army and siezed the Golan Heights, which subsequently were covered with vinyards. The burned out military vehicles remain as a museum. Like the kids here I climbed all over the tank and troop carrier.
If you didn't know you were in the Gallilee, you would think wou were in the Sacramento Valley in California. The photos show the area near the ancient city of Banias, now the subject of an extensive archeological excavation.
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Golan 1 |
Golan 2 |
Golan 3 |
Golan 4 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Galilee 1 |
Galilee 2 |
Galilee 3 |
Galilee 4 |
