Dancing in the Arabian sea and drinking camel's milk

In the Beginning.....
The early morning sun is rising in the wilderness. Our journey started in Jordan ~ John the Baptist country. Strangely, the "wilderness" means lots of hills of rock and dirt.

Lehi's Trail is on this map. We didn't follow it exactly. Lacking the time, funds and political connections, we flew over Saudi Arabia instead of going through it as Lehi did. Click here!! Check the map!!

http://www.latter-day.com/bofm/arabia.htm

We started and finished at the same points however. Before picking up the trail in Jerusalem, we came from Jordan and then crossed to Israel. Here we could see there weren't any welcome mats out for the Israelies on the Palestinian side.....

Lehi lived in Jerusalem until he was called by God to leave. We followed his trail down past the Dead Sea and out to the Red Sea. That is where we crossed back into Jordan to catch a flight for Muscat, Oman. From there we flew to Salalah in the south of Oman. (Check that map!) There 3 proposed sites for the Land Bountiful awaited our inspection. If only Lehi had it so easy.

Meanwhile, back in The Big City
The Dome of the Rock is my favorite spot in Jerusalem. To be more "spiritually correct", I should say my favorite spot is the Garden of Gethsemane or, the Garden Tomb - but this mosque has such wonderful mosaic work!

You may click to enlarge it!!

I am enthralled with the BYU Jerusalem Center. The architecture of the building is nothing short of inspirational. Free community concerts are held every Sunday evening.
The audiences view the lights of Jerusalem through the scenic windows as they listen to the finest organ in the city.

It is the most incredible place of all - right up there with The Dome of the Rock.

There are a lot of feral cats. This underfed kitten isn't as big as the curb. I had to bring the photo home since I couldn't rescue the kitty.

Leaving the big city... We descended to the Dead Sea. We saw the hills of Qumran where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found.

We stopped at the oasis Ein Gedi. It could have been here that Lehi's family stopped while the boys returned to Jerusalem to fetch the plates from their Uncle Laban. Later, they went back again to invite their Uncle Ishmael, and his girls, to join them. It probably took them a month to make the round trip from this spot.

These ibex aren't much to look at - especially since they blend into the rocky scenery. However, they might have been food for Lehi's family while Nephi and his brothers were on their mission to Jerusalem. Eating ibex (if ibex were there then) would have saved on camel slaughtering.

At Ein Gedi, our guide talked of this "floating water" ~his native description of a waterfall. (It's actually visible if you click to enlarge it)

A replica of the portable tabernacle that the children of Israel carried around for so many years in the wilderness.
Egypt plays a close role in the history of Christianity. I never made the connections before. I knew Mary and Joseph went to Egypt to save their baby boy from Herod. Abraham frequented the temple in Luxor. Moses was raised in Egypt. Joseph was sold as a slave to Egyptians. His family went to Egypt for food years later. Yes, I'm starting to see a connection .....

Working the mines.... Egyptians mined copper in the Israel. (At a place called Timna, to be more exact....) The Incense Trail we followed was a common trading route for transporting goods between Israel and other countries. It makes perfect sense that Lehi and his family, being prosperous business people, would know the Arabic, Hebrew and Egyptian languages. The family would also have all the traveling equipment ready at hand to pick up and leave town when God told them to.

Nephi was probably apprenticed in metallurgy. He had an appreciation for the metal work in Laban's sword hilt; he, himself, owned a bow of fine steel; and when God commanded him to build a boat, he only asked where to find the metal he needed to make some tools.


The mines at Timna are narrow, unimpressive, shafts. The openings to the shafts aren't very exciting.

The covers aren't any more exciting than the holes are.

Digging and passing along small buckets of ore without electric lighting or ventilation made me wonder. Why didn't they do the open pit method, such as the Kennecott copper mine in Utah?

Maybe because using hand tools back then was a lot of work. Ya think?

There are footholds carved into the shaft for moving up and down. Here is a cut-away example of what the shafts look like inside.

Big Dreams.....We were told that later in our tour, we would be camping out. We would experience what it was like for Lehi's family to be on the move and sleeping al fresco under the Arabian stars. I was looking forward to it.

Since leaving the hotels, the quality of toilet facilities were often disgusted... uh....I mean discussed among the women on the tour. I wonder if Ishmael's girls ever said anything?

We came across this "Out of Africa" camp site. It fostered hope in the non-campers of our group that our campsite would be as pleasant. These are nice tents.... the "bathrooms" I declined to photo.... eeewww.

Lawrence of Arabia needed to be rescued! We mounted several sagging, dinged up, rusty jeeps and rattled out at full speed over the desert sands. No seat belts! The thrill! What would mom say? What would Uncle Sam say? Who the heck cares???

After following the trail down from Jerusalem, past the Dead Sea to the Red Sea, we crossed back to over to Jordan. There we could see Israel, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. All 4, are neighbors to each other. The dirt and hills weren't much for pictures, and neither was I, so I'm having Leah model here.

Standing in Jordan with Egypt on her right, Israel on her left and Saudi Arabia at the end of her shadow (give or take a several kilometers...)










Back on the bus.....and in southern Jordan, we visit Petra !! Maybe Lehi knew of this magnificent and mysterious lost city. It was a vibrant trading hub that vanished from maps in the seventh century AD. In 1812, a Swiss scholar disguised as a Bedouin trader discovered and identified the ruins as the ancient Nabataean capital.

Petra is located in remote desert canyons. It was at the cross roads of caravan trade routes between Arabia, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. The Nabatiaeans carved the city's temples, tombs, and theaters directly into the region's red sandstone cliffs.




















I didn't take many photos of the place. However the "Treasury" and the carved edifices in the rock are amazing. If it is possible to capture mystery and greatness at all, try this slide show of someone else's photos. http://www.pbase.com/mansour_mouasher/petra.

Personally, I distracted myself with a little horseback riding adventure as you can see.....

Next it is "Good-bye Jordan, and Hello Oman!"



journal writing by lamplight in the cave at Mughsayl