After meeting at the Qumran Parking lot and moving the cars to the end of the hike, we started walking towards Nachal Qumran.
As we were crossing the streem bed we looked down and saw a pool formed by the last flood.
We stopped at the base of the cliff for a short explanation, and then started the climb up. The climb was fairly steep and included some scrambling, but we all made it up.
We stopped for another short explanation looking over a view of the northern part of the Dead Sea, Qumran and Kibbutz Kalya.
After resting a bit, we continued on the climb. After another short climb we arrived at the top of the cliff and started making our way south on a dirt road. The road was far from flat, and there were many short ascents and descents. We took a short detour to to another lookout point.
After a few more ups and downs on the dirt road, we turned off the road, and started making our way towards Rosh Tzukim. After a short break, and some more explanations, we started our decent towards Ein Feshcha. During the descent, we had lovely views of the Ein Feshcha Nature Reserve and the northern part of the Dead Sea.
Ein Feshcha is the lowest nature reserve on earth.
Rosh Tzukim is at about -70 meters below sea level and the end of the descent is at about -360 meters below sea level So there was an elevation loss of about 290 meters over a distance of about 4 kilometers (as the crow flies).
The Ascent was a bit shorter. We started at about -330 meters below sea level and ended at about -100 below sea level.
Thanx to Elana who organized this hike, and to Amir who was our guide.
