sunrise in Israel

It took something wonderful like an Israel sunrise to nudge me out of my long posting hiatus.  Perhaps this means some more dawn blogging to come -- if not from me, from you!  Let's see the sun around the world --

Our contributor today went on her first trip to Israel under the auspices of the Birthright program.  She was kind enough to send her photos of dawn from two different days during her group's tour of the country.  Here are her notes:

"The first three were taken atop Masada, an ancient fortress at the top of a mountain that also borders the Dead Sea. We woke up at 4am to hike up to the top in time for sunrise, and it really paid off. If you look closely at the horizon, just between the mountains and the ground, you may notice a shimmering stripe between them - that's the Dead Sea."

"The second shot was taken from a Bedouin encampment where we stayed for one night in the middle of the Negev desert, in the south of Israel. You can get a sense of the flatness and texture of the land there, and I also love this shot because you can still see the moon, just beside the morning sun."