Photo below - me sleeping after the many stairs we climbed to see Herod's lair.

Photo to left, Herod's chambers.

We stopped at Herodia (another one of Herod the Great's Palaces). This one is just out of Bethelehem. The detail they have managed to uncover is amazing. We were even able to see where this Evil King laid his head. Absolutely remarkable that these things are still around (albeit under quite a bit of dirt and rubble). This brings up another thing I thought of as we traveled down Israel toward Eilat. There is A LOT of rock and rubble! The landscape is incredible.

Jerusalem is truly a city on a hill. It takes a lot of stamina to walk up the hill to Jerusalem. So next time you hear the hymn "Marching to Zion" it is up hill all the way, no matter what road you take! And that up hill road is VERY steep!

It also called to mind the scripture where Jesus mentions the rocks crying out, there would be a lot of crying in Judah if the rocks cried out!

Now, I was doing the driving today given the driving yesterday made me a little queezy. I'm not sure if it was because we had a female driver, or just the luck of the draw, but after we'd passed through Palestinian territory (very identifiable by all of the various walls that have been erected), we hit a check point and were stopped. Out of the car we were ordered, we then had to remove each and every bag out of our very jam packed car. Then we were hearded into a very small office and had to go through various scanners. I did have a nice little chat with one officer during this 45 minute detour. And if this is what it takes to keep citizens and aliens safe here, then it is worth all of the time in the world! I did want to take a photo, but the rest of my traveling party thought it would be a very bad idea to aim a camera at our newest friends!

We then made our way down through the Negev. This area of Israel has such incredible Canyons. It was very similar to the Canyons we have out west (although we didn't see any quite so large as the Grand Canyon). I've attached a photo as well.

We stopped in the area which is said that Moses viewed the Holy Land (Maktesh Ramon) - before the Israelites were lost for 40 years. Look at this photo - it's a wonder they grumbled!!! Not much there to look at! Then they got to wander around this area for 40 years! Teaches me not to grumble so much! :)

We finally made it to our new hotel which is a very nice little spot in a very interesting part of the world. It's similar to small coastal cities. Lots of Neon Lights and Clubs. We are thankfully in a quieter part of town.

Tomorrow, on to Petra.