The Dead Sea was not at all what I expected, although to be honest I hadn't thought much about it before hand. On maps, it's very difficult for me to judge the size of anything in the Middle East because my scale of reference is Alaska, which is close to twenty times the size of Jordan. Consequently, I was expecting the Dead Sea to be similar to a medium size lake. It's not massive, and it is possible to see across to the other side, which is the West Bank. (Apparently on a clear day you can see Jerusalem.) However, you can't see the entire lake at once, and since we stayed at one end of it, I'm not really sure how long it is. The aspect of the landscape surrounding the Dead Sea that surprised me was the mountains. Mountains, by my definition, have to be devoid of trees at some point (so the Green Mountains don't count for me, a debate I have had many times in Vermont. They're very pretty hills.), and while these mountains probably don't qualify for the title in terms of altitude, they were almost entire without vegetation, so to me they looked like mountains. The colors of the rocks was incredible, ranging from almost green to vibrant red. I tried to get pictures that conveyed the differences, but only in a couple of them are the colors really visible.
Most of the last two days have been devoted to traditional orientation, the main point of which is to emphasize to us that we don't know the rules of behavior in this society and we should listen to those who do. We did take a break though, to swim in the Dead Sea, one of the strangest experiences I've ever had. The water feels almost slimy and it was quite disorienting for me, since I am used to swimming, because normal swimming is almost impossible. Getting any part of your body below the water line requires real effort, so it's easiest to just lie down. There was a Jordanian man on the beach with a bucket of black mud who, for 2 dinars (about $2.50) would cover you in "healing" mud from the Dead Sea, although there wasn't any on the beach we were on.
Here are some pictures of the Dead Sea and the surrounding mountains.
You are literally the only person I can imagine who sees the Dead Sea and has the first thought, "Well, it's not Alaskan-sized, but it's pretty okay..."
ReplyDeleteActually the thing that impressed me the most was seeing the West Bank on the other side and the fact that it took us only 40 minutes to drive there from Amman.
ReplyDeleteCool rocks! was my first thought. the rift valley is supposed to have some neat canyon hiking too.
ReplyDeleteI am enjoying reading about your adventures so far. It is encouraging. What do you think of CIEE so far?