Have you ever picked up a beautiful shell or a shiny pebble from the beach, just so you could gift it your good friend – like a memoir? Two friendly nations Nepal and Israel decided that to promote tourism in their countries they would do something remarkable, like erect new monuments that people would love to come and visit.

So the two countries sat down and talked about what would make a fascinating monument around Mount Everest in Nepal. One of the officers remarked in this meeting, “How about we place a beautiful looking stone from the Dead Sea from Israel close to Mount Everest? Since the Dead Sea is the lowest point on the land around the entire world it would be fantastic to link a piece of rock from there to the highest point on land – the Mount Everest”.

And so it was agreed. A monument containing a stone from Israel’s Dead Sea has now been placed in Nepal’s Mount Everest region linking the two points forever!

The Dead Sea monument was created by Israeli artist Jojo Ohayon using two pieces of stone and by doing additional metal work over them. The monument is just two feet in length and has been placed in the Sagarmatha National Park of Nepal, which is the southern part of the Mt. Everest.

Nepal was one of the first countries to make friends with Israel, as many as 52 years ago. This monument is another mark of their friendship. Israel is also looking forward to erect a reciprocal monument built out of rock from the Nepalese Mount Everest and place it near Dead Sea next month.

The two countries might be far geographically but certainly close in their hearts. And did we say, Rock-solid pals! :)