Jericho, Qumran & Dead Sea Tour 

This fascinating tour visits Jericho, Qumran, the Dead Sea, and takes a peek at areas of East Jerusalem intended to become part of the Palestinian State, and rarely visited by tourists.

On the trip to Jericho, you'll see checkpoints, sections of the Separation Wall, and Ma'ale Adumim, one of the largest settlements in the West Bank. The differences between the lives of Israelis in the settlement of Ma'ale Adumim and the adjacent Palestinian town of Azariya will be apparent, and the plight of the Jahalin Bedouin will be explored. The Jahalin lost most of their land to Ma'ale Adumim and today live a precarious existence in ramshackle 'unrecognized' villages constantly under threat of home demolitions and renewed evictions by the Israeli authorities.  You'll see some of these unrecognized residences en-route to Jericho.

In Jericho, you'll pass by the luxurious Casino/hotel built by President Arafat. Then on to the ancient excavated city, and the monastery on the Mount of Temptation with an incredible panoramic view of the Jordan Valley. You'll also visit Hisham's Palace, built in the 8th century during the Umayyad Empire. Jericho is one of the oldest excavated cities on the planet, dating back over 10,000 years. The local springs created an oasis in the otherwise arid Jordan Valley, and formed the basis for the successive settlements there. Modern Jericho is a sleepy town of about 15,000 people, and an outpost of the Palestinian Authority within an area over which Israel maintains firm control.

From Jericho, you'll continue to Qumran, the site of the discovery of the famous Dead Sea Scrolls and a Helenistic settlement during the 2nd century BCE. It was destroyed by the Romans near the end of the the 1st Century CE.  Then off for a dip in the Dead Sea at one of the nearby beaches.