Judea: The Mysterious Biblical Desert | Deserts And Life | TRACKS

paper was light gold in medieval times [Music] i want tobacco sugar [Music] that everything we thought we knew about the world might turn out to be completely wrong [Music] deserts the driest places on earth covering more than a fifth of all the world's landmass as dangerous to life as the highest peak or the coldest glacier [Music] but in these harsh and barren wastelands nature endures people have lived in the desert since the beginning of time resilient and resourceful they have developed unique cultures and deep spiritual bonds with these arid lands [Music] but the modern world of commerce and industry is encroaching on the desert claiming its resources changing the delicate balance of life now more than ever desert people must adapt to survive this series tells their story of struggle and endeavor of humanity's continuing relationship with the most challenging places on earth [Music] jerusalem a city built at the very edge of the desert one of the holiest places on earth sacred to three faiths [Music] for jews jerusalem is the center of their promised land and of their world it's where solomon's temple stood and herod's temple after it and where one day many jews believe a third temple may stand [Music] jerusalem is also sacred to muslims [Music] it's from here muslims believe that muhammad ascended to heaven [Music] and for christians jerusalem is central to the key events which gave birth to their faith it's the city where jesus was tried and crucified and died and where he rose again from all over the world christians come here to follow their lord's last journey to his place of execution [Music] on high days and religious holidays the streets of the old city are a crush of pilgrims seeking to worship and celebrate but in all the push and shove it isn't easy to get close to god [Music] that's why so many pilgrimages here also include time spent in the wilderness which lies just outside the city's walls the judean desert the desert of the soul [Music] [Music] the spiritual significance of the desert is deep and ancient it runs through all three faiths for muslims the desert is hot dry infertile the very opposite of the perpetual gardens of paradise jewish prophets look forward to the desert blooming to streams in the wilderness and before beginning his ministry jesus himself withdrew to this desert to solitude and quiet contemplation to nothing but the absolute essentials of life [Music] over the centuries many followed christ's example in the cliffs and crannies of the judean desert monasteries housed those who felt called to renounce the world to live as far from luxury and distraction as humans can [Music] even simpler even more solitary were the rock caves that became hermit cells [Music] today pilgrims arrive here by the coach load but their quest is much the same to reconnect with what really matters [Music] most i've conducted [Music] [Applause] a desert location traditionally regarded as the place where jesus's ministry began in sunday school ruth will have learned that jesus was baptized in the river jordan immediately before he went into the desert to fast and pray and to be tempted by the devil [Music] many christians believe that this is where the baptism happened the bible says that when jesus rose up from the river the heavens opened and the spirit of god came down like a dove saying this is my beloved son with whom i am well pleased [Music] from all over the world christians come to be baptized in these same desert waters [Music] miyaza johannes is another of the ethiopian christians here today she's leading the group of pilgrims who've come to follow jesus's example foreign as the day goes on more and more pilgrims arrive keen to experience baptism the peace and quiet of the desert have melted away spiritual fervor is all around instead but isn't just a place of religious significance the river marks the dividing line between two countries israel and jordan from the far bank jordanian soldiers keep a watchful eye [Music] here this desert of the soul is also a military zone all around the baptism site the signs of past conflict are plain to see located at the center of one of the world's religious flash points casarel yahood has only recently been reopened to pilgrims [Music] work to build new facilities for them is ongoing in what is essentially still a militarized zone security remains a real worry for the israeli authorities but as veteran tour guide dikram taurasian knows there's an economic imperative to make sure the desert remains open for business with the shoulders thank you thank you is [Music] is foreign [Applause] touring the judean desert is one of the real highlights of a visit to the holy land crossing the wilderness is a network of modern highways which speed the tour buses with little delay from one ancient religious site to the but next pilgrims have to eat a lunch stop is a chance for the ethiopians to draw breath and reflect on the spiritual sustenance they've gained a mother of 15 children is in her 80s and she experiences this desert journey in a special way she's blind [Music] this afternoon another mode of transport and another high point for the pilgrims [Music] this cable car on the outskirts of jericho takes visitors to a desert peak which stands 350 metres above sea level this is the mount of temptation said to be the very spot where the devil confronted jesus thou shalt not be tempted to the jewellery you're climbing my temptation [Music] while christ fasted for 40 days the devil tempted him to use his supernatural powers for selfish ends one temptation was to satisfy his hunger by turning the stones of the desert into bread [Music] early christian pilgrims searched for the place where jesus overcame the devil's wiles it was queen helena of constantinople who in the year 326 is supposed to have identified this as the location ever since hermits have come to follow jesus's example and live lives of extreme simplicity in caves on the mountain in the 6th century a greek orthodox monastery was built over the cave which is thought to have sheltered christ for 40 nights a pilgrimage here is meant to be a lesson in what the desert can do for the spirit but modern tourism can sometimes feel more like a shopping trip those who believe that this is where jesus fasted are now tempted to eat and drink [Music] yet for those who have faith coming away to the wilderness remains [Music] me [Music] as it always has done this desert still nourishes the soul [Music] it's also a place which presents physical challenges which many find hard to resist [Music] dawn above the dead sea despite temperatures that exceed 40 degrees celsius it's a mecca for adventurers looking to scale the cliffs and where you have climbers you need rescuers today the megalot search and rescue team are preparing to blood two new volunteers after weeks of training this is the first chance for them to see if they're desert ready [Music] [Music] as deputy head of the unit it's his job to set the challenge and monitor the team's performance from the moment the exercise begins it's a race against the clock [Music] the experienced volunteers are putting their own lives at risk testing the rope skills of the rookies [Music] every knot and every belay has to be perfect for trainee yanu shiner it's an adrenaline rush head [Music] for fellow newcomer karima oritershtik there's also a lot to play for a nurse in real life today she must navigate a steep descent to reach her patience saving lives as a family affair as deserts go the judean is small but deadly particularly to the thousands of people who venture here unprepared part of the problem is that this desert is so easily accessible city dwellers can get here in a matter of minutes it leaves them no time to adjust to the environment as team leader mike ott knows only too well [Music] foreign just a week ago this team worked all night to rescue a group of hikers lost and suffering from exhaustion and dehydration deep in the desert but it's not just the lack of water people need to be prepared for sometimes and without warning there's water everywhere [Applause] during the springtime flash floods torrents of rainwater flow from the judean mountains through the valleys of the desert the rocky limestone terrain cannot absorb the water and it collects in deep fast flowing gullies [Music] [Applause] thrill seekers who come to experience the drama are sometimes caught in the deluge when it comes to saving lives in the desert mike knows every second counts a lesson these new recruits are learning fast once they reach their patient they must act quickly to administer emergency treatment the sooner they stabilize him the sooner they can winch him to safety that is if the ropes hold but they mustn't get ahead of themselves as mike knows the most serious injuries happen to those who take the desert for granted the new volunteers have passed now they're fully part of this team and its sacred mission to be ready to lay down their lives for strangers in distress [Music] but there are some people who instinctively know how to survive in the judean desert when the dust storms come the bedouin know how to see them out since time immemorial bedouins have lived in desert conditions like these and mother of nine children her family are nomads arab shepherds descendants of the negev bedouin who migrated northwards from the arabian desert three centuries ago her life follows a daily pattern that hasn't changed much in all that time she spends hours shaking this camel skin bag to make yoghurt from goat's milk yoghurt is a food the bedouins brought north from the arabian peninsula where they've used it as a staple for thousands of years but now their way of life here in israel is under threat from forces even more powerful than the desert wind the bedouins are caught up in a bitter struggle over land between jews and palestinians which overshadows the politics of the middle east there's huge pressure on them to move away from areas israel regards are strategically important but there's no obvious home for them elsewhere the family have to range far and wide to find rough pasture and water for their livestock over the winter this is their base just enough shelter beneath a small ridge for themselves and their animals [Applause] the name bedouin means those in the desert feared by some for their ferocity they are a proud people inheritors of a nomadic way of life that's grown out of harshness and has stood the test of time but sabha's husband ali sees all that coming to an end with the current generation of [Music] even here in the desert bedouin families feel the pressure of modern life encroaching on themselves [Music] already many young bedouins are part of the palestinian education system they learn about the desert in a different way from their mothers and fathers today the shrine of musa is welcoming a succession of school visits in islamic tradition this is a significant place of pilgrimage the grave of moses a prophet revered by both jews and muslims [Music] but compared with the well-developed sites holy to jews and christians this shrine is starved of funding according to local leader abu kassim [Music] with more money they could develop a proper educational center here one that could really embrace bedouin children from the hills all around the real history of this desert is something that's being lost because there's nowhere a new day and for sub her and her bedouin family a change in the weather another year has turned it's time to pack up the winter quarters and move on they don't need a calendar to tell them this knowing when and where to move is a bedouin instinct developed over millennia of desert life [Music] foreign foreign bedouins still follow their instincts but these days their scope for living as true nomads is severely restricted the israeli state has deliberately encouraged the bedouin to settle in towns grazing restrictions hem them in there's pressure on their land from new jewish settlements now they simply can't sustain themselves without connections to urban life my the nomadic traditions of the bedouin it seems are fast approaching their end schools and shops are shaping their children's desires but in these lives a faith persists but the desert is the source of a good life there's more honor here they say than in all the wealth and consumerism of the modern world [Applause] foreign my if it's for a blessing the tourists come here perhaps it's not surprising that they're very happy to spend their shekels on ways to remember it jerusalem is full of tourist bazaars porking mementos of a pilgrimage to the holy land modern marketing seems at odds with a religion whose founder threw the money changers out of the temple but that story only goes to show how ancient the link between selling and faith is [Music] other shops offer something that's more authentic genuine archaeological finds dating back to biblical times oil lamps first lit when jesus was alive coins like the widow's might worth next to nothing back then and used by christ the bible says to illustrate an eternal truth poor people giving a little means so much more than the rich donating from their plenty now the widow's might and everything else here is worth a pretty penny for owner nidal ibrahim omar antiques are [Music] stores like these have to be registered with the department of antiquities and the trade [Music] there's a good reason for that as archaeologist yuval pelig knows only too well [Music] today he's out in the desert looking for evidence of a byzantine monastery which stood on this site 1500 years ago [Music] it was just one of scores of monasteries built here in a tradition started by monks from turkey in the 4th century [Music] the idea was to come to be alone with god in these isolated places far from the temptations of the city [Music] their legacy is a desert rich in archaeology [Music] so rich that it's impossible to explore everything that's of interest [Music] yes what but the biggest problem archaeologists face is looting thieves raid the desert for its ancient treasures and they seem to have no difficulty in profiting from their booty so much high profile archaeological finds like the dead sea scrolls have drawn global attention to this desert hoping to uncover relics that might be just as valuable organized gangs come here to dig at night a single find can fetch as much as 300 000 on the black market so archaeologists and legitimate dealers find themselves united in trying to stamp out a lucrative trade that's robbing the desert of its antiquities the archaeology of the desert isn't all to do with christian sites this is masada a fortress set on a high peak above the dead sea for many jews it's a place of huge significance [Music] according to the first century historian josephus it was the jewish king herod the great who fortified this desert hilltop a hundred years later a generation after the time of christ the jews rose up against roman occupation the revolt failed but it was here that a group of jews made a doomed last stand the romans laid siege to masada when they finally broke through josephus says they discovered how devoted jews could be to their faith rather than bend the knee to rome the defenders almost a thousand of them had committed mass suicide [Music] masada draws jewish visitors from all over the world the chernins have traveled from the united states to celebrate a big family occasion the bat mitzvah of daughter tori we plan to be here for the bat mitzvah because you know we live in in the states it's sometimes hard to remember who you are and trying to teach tori to remember who she is which in any religion in any walk of life gets harder and harder there's so much noise that drowns out sometimes in society who you are the silence is deafening it's palpable you can feel what was here and to be connected to that is magical you don't get that in many places in the world [Music] the story ultimately is a sad story but it's not just the ending of the story it's the redemption it's it's it's the struggle it's the fight it's the it's the faith of the jews that came here to live as jews in celebrating her bat mitzvah twelve-year-old tori is undergoing a religious rite of passage it's the age at which jewish girls are considered old enough to understand god's laws and to be accountable for their own actions marking her coming of age here is something tori will never ever forget it's kind of from seeing city life to desert life i've never seen anything like this i mean who gets to come to israel for their bat mitzvah on top of a really really really great mountain who gets to just enjoy the sights and the views who gets to do that that makes it special for me in the desert it's just just so great other tourists come for less elevated reasons masada looks down on the dead sea the lowest point in any land mass on the planet 425 meters below sea level river water flows into the sea but can't flow out it simply evaporates leaving a salty residue that's built up over the millennia a third of this water is dissolved salt it's six times saltier than the ocean and no fish can survive in it it's dense famously you don't swim here you float the healing properties of dead sea salt and mud have always drawn visitors to this place these days it's a multi-million dollar business some of the world's finest hotels luxury spa [Music] treatments the mud of the dead sea is enriched with minerals essential to healthy skin it's used to treat psoriasis and eczema as well as arthritis therapy or relaxation dead sea mud packs are famous legend has it that one person who came here to use them was cleopatra [Music] it's good to de-stress but the bosses of this tourist industry are far from relaxed [Music] their livelihood depends on the dead sea and the dead sea is disappearing [Music] for decades water from the river jordan which feeds it from the north has been siphoned off for irrigation factories and homes over a billion cubic meters of water a year used to flow into the sea today it's less than 100 million the vital flow has turned into a trickle and the sea level is dropping fast [Music] these markers have been placed at the shore's edge year by year to keep track of how rapidly the sea is shrinking [Music] every year the water depth decreases by as much as a meter [Music] at the same time new water intensive industries have appeared accelerating the dead sea's decline the north of the sea has become separated from the southern end and dikes have been built across the whole of the southern portion [Music] they've created huge salt evaporation pans which extract carnolite [Music] the mineral is processed to make potassium chloride a chemical used in fertilizers medicine and food [Music] the raw materials for magnesium metal are also produced here it all has the effect of reducing water levels even further and nowhere is this more evident than ein gedi spa which used to advertise that it was right on the water but dropping sea levels means it's now almost two kilometers away from the shore if you want to bathe you have to be driven there it's exasperating for spa manager jonathan el bass if no action is taken experts predict that the water level will drop by a further 100 to 150 meters and many see no end to the process jonathan is not alone in fearing that before long [Music] [Music] over millions of years a natural equilibrium here created a unique desert environment in a matter of generations that balance seems to have been completely overturned what's certainly true is that there's a new and deadly danger on these banks the drop in sea level has been followed by changes to the groundwater along the shore layers of brine that used to underpin the topsoil have been flushed out below the ground cavities form then collapse dramatically and without warning the gaping depressions are called sinkholes for decades geologist ely raz has been studying what's happening on land as the water every few days new holes appear and each one represents danger has begun to map them and to try to get a grasp on the precise conditions which caused them [Music] strangely ellie came to the desert to get away from life as a geologist it was idealism which brought him here in the late 1950s he joined a kibbutz an agricultural cooperative the judean date palm has been cultivated in this desert oasis for thousands of years although next to no rain falls here natural springs provide water for crops and plants the kibbutz today sees itself as the successor to the biblical settlement of ein gedi famous for its vineyards and palm trees ellie grew up in a much more fertile part of israel but something here spoke to his song but eddie realized the modern day mission to replant and restore the date groves was now in peril sinkholes were rapidly undermining the cultivated land so to safeguard the project in which the kibbutz had invested so much ellie returned to surveying the local geology and that all but cost him his life in 2003 he was out alone checking new sinkhole activity a massive chasm suddenly opened beneath his feet he came to at the bottom of a hole nine metres deep [Music] [Music] soon ellie had written on every inch of the postcard but it would be another 14 hours before rescue [Music] back in his office eddie still keeps private the testament he wrote that day special messages to his closest loved ones for all that he knew at the time they were his last words to them but though he's learned caution nothing keeps him from measuring the environmental damage that's happening here as a geologist ellie knows that in this desert of the soul the landscape shapes material fortunes too the sinkholes have arrested the economic growth of the whole region major tourist attractions like matsada have escaped lightly with investment in infrastructure like this cable car system and a gleaming new visitor center and sections are being repaired on stretches of road which are now too dangerous to drive but many businesses are struggling communities are failing and residents are being driven away by the lack of work [Music] and for ellie the future of his oasis in the desert is worth so much that he's willing to go on risking his life for it [Music] the judean desert harsh deceptive deadly here there's nothing soft nothing easy this wilderness strips away distraction and pretension so it's always been a land of deep contemplation of spiritual yearning [Music] it challenges us to fathom the bedrock of existence there are those who call it the desert of the soul but this pilgrim's paradise is also a theater of conflict and struggle it's a place where people trade on tourism and profiteer from the legacy religion has left here [Music] in the name of progress this promised land suffers terrible harm and yet beyond all our shortcomings the judean desert still calls on us to look within ourselves to find a better nature and to lift our eyes in search of a better future here on this earth [Music]

Channel: TRACKS

Views: 499,166

Keywords: TRACKS, tracks travel channel, tracks travel, Documentary movies - topic, full documentary, travel documentary, culture documentary, deserts, desert, Judea, Religion, Deserts And Life, Spiritual, Israel, West Bank, Jerusalem

Id: mmr9YJwQEUE

Length: 52min 8sec (3128 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 25 2021