Israel- St. George Monastery

Our next stop was at Wadi Qelt where we took a walk down the canyon to St. George Monastery. It's an old monastery that has been built into the side of the canyon walls. It was basically built over some old caves. It was kind of pretty the way it was built into the side of the wall.The walk down wasn't to long. We were followed the whole way by a group of Bedouin boys who wanted us to ride their donkeys down. I decided to opt out of riding the donkeys, but not everyone else was so fortunate. I think that a couple people in our group got lifted almost against their will onto the donkeys. It made for an interesting walk down. The monastery is a little off the beaten path. We were the only group there, which is a little different than the other places that we'd been up to this point. It was definitely cool to see. One of the best parts is when our tour guide Jimmy used the knocker on the door. It sent echos up the canyon. Then the smaller section of the door opened up and we were invited in. Inside was interesting as well. The building was relatively light and airy, but there were a couple of dark rooms. In one of the rooms were were surprised to find this... the remains of one of the monks. The monastery was definitely a fun side trip.