Our last day and visit, before returning home, was to Petra. One of the new 7 wonders of the world, Petra, the rose city, the lost city with its massive facades built into the face of its sandstone cliffs. After walking through a slot canyon, one walks up to the face of the Treasury – as seen at the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Of course some of us had to do camel rides.

We left Jerusalem and Israel early in the morning. It took a long time to cross the boarder. Once we did we make our way to Mt. Nebo where Moses, after leading the Israelites through the desert for 40 years, looked out at the Promised Land from the east side of the Dead Sea and Jordan River before dying.

We started early in the morning visiting the Western Wall (a.k.a. Wailing Wall) where we spent time in prayer, and people watching. We then visited the Temple Mount and got up close to the Dome of the Rock.

Our day began on the Mount of Olives where we visited the sites attributed to the Ascension, Jesus teaching his disciples the Lord’s Prayer, and then descended half way down the Mount of Olives to the church attributed to Jesus weeping over Jerusalem where we had beautiful vistas and pictures of the Temple Mount and the Old City.

We traveled down from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea today. First we went to Masada, the fortress city built on top of flat, rock, mountain overlooking the Dead Sea.

Waking to a beautiful sunrise, we left Galilee early in the morning to make the long trek (3-4 hours) to Bethlehem.

We begin a full day today traveling up to Caesarea Phillip (another Caesarea – this one is not by the sea but up in the mountains; not built by Herod the Great but by his son, Herod Philip).