A tour of the Dead Sea desert. (WAFA Images) 

By Zahran Ma’ali

DEAD SEA, March 17, 2018 (WAFA) -The wind blows into tin shacks and tents on a hill overlooking the village of al-Rashaydeh, east of Bethlehem in the south of the West Bank. Farhan Rashaydeh is trying to set up a mattress on the roof of his four-wheel drive vehicle in preparation for taking a ride into the heart of the Dead Sea desert.

Halfway into the desert, it appears on the horizon among the hills the still Dead Sea waters, the lowest area in the world.

Farhan Rashaydeh, the local guide from the village of al-Rashaydeh whose territory stretches to the cliff overlooking the Dead Sea, along with his brother, Mohammed, started their SUVs after 12 journalists looking for adventure and to discover the desert came aboard to take a drive on a road full of danger and adventure.

Rashaydeh lives this experience on a daily basis with a number of tourist groups, both Palestinian and foreign.

"We arrived at one of world’s most beautiful areas," said Rashaydeh pointing to the rocky cliff overlooking the edge of the Dead Sea while journalists hurried to set up their cameras to capture the sunset as it reflected on the world‘s most salty sea water.

Rashaydeh, 30, told WAFA that groups of Palestinian and foreign tourists come on a daily basis to enjoy these beautiful scenery and to spend a night there.

"Every month we see an increase in the number of tourists coming," Rashaydeh said.

Those who visited the Dead Sea desert say it is very similar to the terrain of Wadi Rum in Jordan. The only difference is found in services starting from asphalt roads to cellular phone reception, as well as harassment by the Israeli occupation forces.

The Ministry of Tourism has trained a number of local residents to lead the tours, and built a hostel to host tourists and youth groups through a program related to the track known as Masar Ibrahim al-Khalil.

Masar Ibrahim al-Khalil is 300 kilometer cultural walking route in Palestine that extends from the village of Rummana, northwest of Jenin, to Beit Mirsim, southwest of the Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron. The trail passes through 53 cities and villages where hikers and travelers can experience the Palestinian countryside, Bedouin villages and nature.

At the edge of the rocky cliff overlooking the Dead Sea, the head of Wildlife Society Imad Atrash pointed to the edge of the mountain on the Jordanian side on the east bank of the Dead Sea. "The mountains on both sides of the two banks (the West Bank and Jordan) were connected millions of years ago but had been separated by the great rift."

The Great Rift, known as the Crater Pit, is one of the common names of a large geological rift more than 6,000 kilometers and 7 to 20 kilometers wide running through 22 countries from Turkey in western Asia to Mozambique in eastern Africa.

The highest altitude of the rift is 1170 meters above sea level near the Lebanese town of Baalbek, while the Dead Sea is the lowest point in the rift and the world, where it drops more than 400 meters below sea level.

Atrash told WAFA that what distinguishes the Dead Sea desert is that it is located in the middle of three climatic systems - the crater pit, the Jerusalem mountain range and the Mediterranean Sea - which gave it a special advantage that turned it into a tourist area specifically in the spring because of its unique plant and animal diversity, such as the Nubian wild goat (or capra aegagrus), the Dead Sea crow, the rock hyrax or rock badger, and the acacia plant.

Atrash explained that the presence of the Dead Sea within the area of crater pit has helped in the migration of birds because the hot air currents rising from the ground help large birds, which is a feature of the nature of Palestine where flying birds use the rising air currents to travel distances from the Bekaa in Lebanon to the Gulf of Aqaba.

The length of the crater pit area in Palestine extends to approximately 800 kilometers, from Hula Lake in the north to the Red Sea in the south, according to Atrash.

The length of the desert between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea is 85 kilometers and about 25 kilometers wide.

Rashaydeh and Atrash agree that the region needs great efforts to activate local and foreign tourism.

Ministry of Tourism spokesman Jiries Qumsieh said his ministry has worked to develop the region through a series of programs and events that involved supporting Masar Ibrahim al-Khalil project, which has developed a number of sites, established a tourist inn composed of Bedouin tents, and built the capacity of young residents of the area that extends from Bethlehem to the Dead Sea to serve as tour guides known "The Desert Guides" in Arab al-Rashaydeh, al-Khalisah, al-Nouman and Ubaidiyeh.

He says the ministry, in cooperation with travel and tourism agencies, including the Holy Land Tourism Association, has been promoting these programs through international exhibitions and events. Tourism offices are selling these programs and attracting tourists to these areas.

The Ministry of Tourism hosted last year four European press groups from Romania, Poland, Spain and Ukraine as part of its hiking programs, according to Qumsieh.

He said the ministry has supported ecotourism and trained a number people by given them courses in ecotourism and developing the capacity of a group of explorers through the Palestinian Photographers‘ Forum who have started working through youth groups to film the tracks.

The years 2016 and 2017 witnessed a large turnout of youth organizations throughout the homeland to participate in ecotourism in all regions, specifically the Dead Sea desert and the Jerusalem wildlife, according to Qumsieh.

M.K.