Dead Sea Fun

Launch of Google Street View in Israel Includes Dead Sea

Google's "Street View" service in Israel has been officially launched, according to a Channel 2 News report on Thursday.

The Internet giant deployed its Street View vehicles last September on the streets of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Mitzpeh Ramon in the central Negev and even the Kinneret and the Dead Sea.

Read the full article at IsraelNationalNews.com
Google Street View

Fifty Years of Dead Sea Scroll Translation

In 1962 a youngish scholar named Geza Vermes published the first English translation of the then-available Dead Sea Scrolls - a slim 255-page volume from Penguin Books simply titled The Dead Sea Scrolls in English. This insightful but accessible translation quickly attracted both general readers and scholars.

As the field of Dead Sea Scrolls study burgeoned, so did Vermes's work. Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, the book (now in its seventh edition) has grown into a 720-page tome. An estimated 500,000 copies have been sold.

Read the full article at Biblical Archaeology Review

View from Space: Dead Sea from 1972 to 2011

Three separate Landsat satellites captured false-color images showing an evolution over time of the Dead Sea, also called Salt Sea - the lowest surface feature on Earth - located between Israel and Jordan. The top image is from Landsat 1, acquired September 15, 1972. The middle image is from Landsat 4, acquired on August 27, 1989. The third image is from Landsat 7 on October 11, 2011.

Read the full article at EarthSky.org

Endangered Bats Find Sanctuary in Israeli 'Ghost Bunkers'

Abandoned army bunkers along the Jordan River have become a habitat for 12 indigenous bat species, three of which are already designated as endangered and two that are on the critical list. The bats were recently identified by a group of Tel Aviv University researchers who were granted access to the bunkers, spread out along a 60-mile-long stretch of land between the Sea of Galilee in the north of Israel to the Dead Sea's northern edge.

Read the full article at ScienceDaily.com

There's Uranium in Them Hills

Meir Dagan, the former Mossad chief and current head of the port authority, can now add another title to his curriculum vitae: uranium prospector.

It was announced on Tuesday that Gulliver Energy Ltd, a publicly traded company that in 2011 appointed Dagan as chairman, will begin to search for uranium in a nearly 1,200-acre area between the southern town of Arad and the Dead Sea.

Read the full article at TimesofIsrael.com

Eating and Shopping at the Dead Sea

Sure, the hotels at the Dead Sea have restaurants, buffets, and bars...but, sometimes it's fun to go for a walk on main street and discover a local eating place. For instance, the new Cafe Cafe restaurant features gorgeous, gigantic salads, great coffee, and desserts (well, you'll have to see them for yourself, no spoiler, here). Kosher LeMehadrin.

by Sue Schoenfeld

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