Dead Sea, Israel
It's been a desire of mine for decades to hike up Masada before dawn to view the sun rise over the Dead Sea. I recently had the opportunity to do just that so I booked a tour from Jerusalem and left at 3:30 AM to head into the West Bank and south to the desert. The decent into the valley of the Dead Sea is like coming off of a mountain pass. Jerusalem lies at 2600 ft while the Dead Sea sits at -1300 ft. This is a continuous descent for over an hour.