Judean Desert Jeep Tour

Leaving Jerusalem in the morning, we drive out in Jeeps towards the Dead Sea, leaving the city traffic behind in minutes, and entering the vast expanses of the Judean desert.

The desert provides us a fascinating and rare view of our ancestor’s way of life. We will enter off-road territory inhabited mainly by Bedouin tribes, where we will see their shacks and animals.
We will visit ancient water cisterns, so important for desert farmers and still in use today. We’ll talk about how the Bedouin shepherds’ way of life has remained untouched for generations.

A challenging ride will take us up to Mount Azazel, the sacred hilltop where, in the ancient Jewish tradition, every year on Yom Kippur a scapegoat carrying the sins of the people was cast off a cliff.
We’ll continue to the Mar Saba monastery, almost a secret for travelers in Israel because of the relative difficulty in arriving at the site. The huge monastery, founded over 1500 years ago, is one of the oldest inhabited monasteries in the world with many surrounding ancient solitude rockcaves. The awe-inspiring structure is inhabited by Greek Orthodox monks.

We’ll drive back off road through the miandering Kidron valley with it’s shepherds caves and layers of ancient agriculture.