The salt vats ran for miles! (these are salt farming operations trying to extract salt from the Dead Sea. I am assuming they do not have to try hard)

(And that is not a moon in broad noon; that is a reflection on the windshield I was taking my shots thru)

The shot was taken from about half a mile away. The difference between a gypsy and a bedouin, I was taught by my Jordanian friend Mahmoud, is that gypsies tend to be a lot dirtier and more unhygienic around their tent and tend to shun work (instead beg). I cannot vouch for that but surely this particular tent was far more unkempt than the Bedouin tents I had seen during my last trip.

This is a rock formation on top of the mountain. We are seeing the backside. And there is a good reason for it. According to Biblical stories, this is King Lot’s wife turning her back to the destruction caused by Sodom and Gomorrah. We did not go to the top but from the front, apparently this natural rock formation has an uncanny look for a women’s face.

In the museum, we came to the Bedouin section. There were some great artifacts of Bedouin living that harkened to the past. The clay oven, the tent (most of the time black top), the tools and even a long smoking pipe. (In the picture in the bottom, you can see a picture of a Bedouin lady smoking the long smoking pipe).

But the TV?

It does look like straight out of the 70s… but I would think it is post-Bedouin era!

I was not too sure about the claim. But I did Google it up and it is true. This is the lowest land in the world. A little south of the Dead Sea, this is the “Gawr” area. I am not 100% sure of this but I believe the term translates to “low lying areas” in Arabic.

The museum itself is in Gawr es-Safi. Has some great history lessons on how this area got the first humans and how things have evolved from there.

There is a mummified corpse from long past that completely spooked Sharmila.

Also, this has a coffee shop (a bit modern day, I admit) that serves some killer karak chai!

What I was missing was some Tequila and a lime

But it really just salt rocks with some mud layered in.

It reminded me of an armadillo (a rather well built one, at that)

(*) salt and
(*) salty water