Dead Sea Archives - Page 23 of 30

Rising Waters of the Dead Sea

Today’s Haaretz carries a blistering article on the failure of the Israeli government to act on the rising level of the southern half of the Dead Sea. While the northern half is dropping, the southern portion threatens to flood six hotels near the shoreline.

Short-term thinking. Unthinking optimism – “everything will work out.” Putting off hard decisions, selling national assets for peanuts, and first and foremost, of course, a lack of governance. These are the factors behind the ecological monster that is the Dead Sea, which is about to flood the hotels built in the Ein Bokek oasis.
After one High Court ruling, two biting reports by the state comptroller and any number of warnings about the gravity of the situation, the government is supposed to finally make decisions. It has to decide how to rescue one of Israel’s most important tourism destinations, the lowest place on earth. After 20 years of foot-dragging, it has to decide how best to stop the rising level of the sea’s southern half from swamping the hotels.
[…]
Israel’s ignoring of nature was the root of the evil behind the damaging of the Dead Sea. Israel built its main water conduit from north to south in the 1950s. At the time this was hailed as progress; only later came recognition of the tremendous damage it caused. Since the national conduit redirected water to central Israel, it all but eliminated the flow of natural water down the Jordan River south of Lake Kinneret. Israel’s neighbors Syria and Jordan diverted the course of the Jordan and Yarmouk rivers too. The upshot was that during the 20th century, the Dead Sea fell 25 meters.
Also to blame for the drop in sea level is the Dead Sea Works, owned by Israel Chemicals (ICL ), which in turn is owned by the Ofer family. DSW is responsible for 20% of the drop in sea level, according the Geological Institute. It siphons seawater into evaporation pans south of the sea, from which it extracts the potash it sells worldwide as fertilizer.
[…]
It came up with three suggestions. One: Harvest the salt building up on the floor of the pool to keep the water level steady. Two: Create a lagoon by splitting the salt pool into two parts. The water level of the part by the hotels would remain steady. Three: Raze the six hotels on the shore (and the adjacent shopping centers ) and rebuild them elsewhere.
The Tourism Ministry is deliberating between option one (harvest ) and three (move ), and is reportedly leaning toward the latter. The Finance Ministry (which doesn’t get to decide ) supports the last option, as the cheapest.

This is not the first time this subject has been addressed in the media, but this may be the best article to date. Read the whole for more details.

Hotels of Ein Bokek

Tagged Dead Sea

Top Tourist Sites in Israel in 2010

According to Dun and Bradstreet Israel, the most visited paid tourist sites in Israel in 2010 were:

1. Masada – 762,992 visitors; revenue of $10 million

2. Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem – 718,902 visitors

3. Caesarea National Park – 698,808 visitors

4. Banias National Park – 663,000 visitors (up from 9th place in 2009)

5. Ramat Gan Safari Park – down from 2nd place in 2009

6. En Gedi Nature Reserve – 468,562 visitors (most of which were on their way to or from Masada)

7. Hammat Gader hot springs

8. Underwater Observatory in Eilat

9. Qumran National Park (see comment on #6 above)

10. Yamit 2000 Water Park in Holon

Israeli visitors account for the large majority of those visiting #2, #5, #7, #8, and #10. Foreigners are likely the majority at #3 and #9. The others are popular with both Israelis and foreigners. Six of the sites are water-related and favorite destinations of locals in the summer.

The most popular free tourist site was the Western Wall of Jerusalem.

Given that 3.5 million tourists visited Israel in 2010, the majority of them Christians, one is led to wonder where the Christians all went. Surely more than 1 million Christian tourists did not come and leave Israel without visiting Capernaum. Perhaps the site was excluded from the survey for some reason, even though it charges an entrance fee. Last year’s survey (noted on this blog here) was reported as pertaining only to Israelis’ destinations, but the stories in the Jerusalem Post and Arutz-7 of this year’s results suggest that all tourists are included.

Masada from west

Tagged Dead Sea, Jerusalem, Tourism

Video Lecture: Revealing Dead Sea Scrolls to the World

The Great Courses is offering a free lecture (until April 5) entitled “Revealing the Dead Sea Scrolls to the World.” The 30-minute lecture is given by Gary A. Rendsburg and is one of 24 lectures in the Dead Sea Scrolls course. The lecture is described as follows:

To follow the story of how the Dead Sea Scrolls were first translated and interpreted is to witness the great lengths to which scholars will go to learn new insights into the mysteries of the past. It’s a tale filled with controversial publications, scrolls squirreled away in shoeboxes, a revealing New Yorker essay, and a six-day-long war between Israel and its Arab neighbors. More important, it’s a tale whose conclusion revolutionized our understanding of ancient Jewish history. In Revealing the Dead Sea Scrolls to the World, you learn

how some of the original documents first came into the hands of scholars;

how the first series of scrolls were transcribed and translated; and

a few of the many insights learned from work done on the important Temple Scroll.

The lecture may be viewed here.

Tagged Dead Sea, Resources

En Gedi Never Fails to Disappoint

This article by Yoni Cohen may be the most worthless piece of reporting I’ve seen in years of reading the Jerusalem Post. I can’t imagine that it took more than five minutes to write, nor can I understand why the Jerusalem Post is not exercising some editorial oversight over an article linked from the site’s front page. Perhaps these days it’s all about getting the “clicks,” but ultimately I think it’s a bad strategy.

The five photos are all blurry (to my eyes), but the three brief comments currently posted are more helpful than the article itself.

[This blog post took less than five minutes to write, but this illustrated page about En Gedi took much longer to create.]

Tagged Dead Sea, Tourism

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

Mark Hoffman is in the process of posting geo-tagged photos from his recent trip to Turkey and Greece.

Tom Powers has determined the exact location of the recently discovered Roman bathhouse in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Ferrell Jenkins has returned safely from his trip to Egypt and Israel. See his recent posts for photos he took along the way.

Leen Ritmeyer continues his explanation of the newly excavated drainage channel next to the Temple Mount.

This Israel MFA article shows you how you can be an “eco-tourist in Israel.” The conclusion provides a list of a ten GoEco opportunities. Many of them sound worthwhile and interesting.

The Jerusalem Post has an interview with Kay Wilson, the tour guide who was nearly stabbed to
death while hiking with a friend in the hills west of Jerusalem.

The Dead Sea is not dead. Some microorganisms are able to survive in the extremely salty conditions. Most of the brief article at ScienceDaily is technical, but this sentence caught my eye:

“Evolution is not a perfect engineer who plans everything and knows exactly what he wants to create from the outset.”

Excavating the City of David, by Ronny Reich, is scheduled to be published this spring by the Israel Exploration Society. Eisenbrauns has the details and is accepting pre-orders.

The best mainstream treatment of the history of ancient Israel is now out in a third edition. Ancient Israel has chapters written by a dozen scholars and is edited by Hershel Shanks. The previous edition came out in 1999, so an updated work is needed. As of this writing, the best price is at the BAS Store.

The latest edition of Atiqot has been published and you can read the articles for free if you register (a quick and easy process). The article I clicked on to test the process (“A Cairn Field”) turns out to be about a potential high place near Jerusalem in the time of Jeremiah.

Israel’s MFA has the best article I can remember about birds migrating through Israel. “At least 500 million birds of 200 different species fly across Israel each spring and fall.” The article tells you where to find them and why you might want to.

And a Haaretz reporter is surprised that he/she likes the newly introduced McFalafel.

Tagged Dead Sea, Jerusalem, Resources, Tourism, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup

Fifteen marble pillars have been discovered in Gaza’s port.

There’s some question about whether the British Museum has agreed to a three-month extension of the loan of the Cyrus Cylinder. More of the saga is explained here.

Excavations are in progress at Tell el-Hammam and director Steven Collins gives an update in a new video on location. The project was also recently featured in a special on Jordanian TV.

The Israel Ministry of Tourism is promoting the Dead Sea in the final selection of the New7Wonders of Nature. You can vote here, or you can visit the facebook group here. A win for the Dead Sea would be a win for Israel and Jordan both.

The Biblical Archaeology Society has just released its annual issue of excavations. Lots of details about 2011 digs throughout Israel and Jordan are available online.

Weekend rains raised the water level of the Sea of Galilee by one inch, but it’s still hovering at the red line.

Archaeologists are beginning preservation work on the ruins of Babylon.

Visitors to the acropolis of Pergamum in Turkey can no longer arrive there by bus, but now are
required to take a cable car.

Someday I’d like to visit the oasis of Siwa in western Egypt.

Google Labs has a Books Ngram Viewer that allows you to compare the use of words in books in the last couple of centuries. This comparison of “Israel” and “Palestine” was not quite what I expected.

A comparison of “Gezer” and “Megiddo” reveals the periods when the excavations have been active.

Disney is coming to Israel, with plans announced for a complex of shops and a 25-screen theater.

Apparently there will be an amusement park but it will not be a “Disney theme park.” I’m not sure what that means, unless we’re simply not to expect Mickey to take photos with our children.

HT: Explorator, Paleojudaica, Ferrell Jenkins

Tagged Dead Sea, Discoveries, Museums, Tourism, Turkey, Weather, Weekend Roundup