Our first stop was at a place called Masada (which means “fortress”). This is another huge palace built by King Herod but this time it’s on the top of a mountain. It’s truly amazing what this man was able to accomplish so long ago. When we visited Caesarea on Day 2 (also built
by Herod) they told us that Herod was a master architect and liked to be known as “able to conquer even nature itself”. Caesarea was built on a beach in the most unlikely spot for a port of call, and Masada was built all the way up on top of a huge mountain – again defying nature and what people thought could be done. As many leaders back in the day, their goal was to build the biggest, the best, and the most impressive structures and Herod seemed to take the prize (at least from what little I know of history so far!!!) The feat alone of collecting rain/mountain water and storing it in a cistern up way on top of a mountain in the desert is amazing enough.
We took a cable car ride to the top of the mountain, saw a video about the site, and walked for quite a long time through the many rooms, courtyards, bathhouses, sauna’s. (Yes, another amazing feat – a sauna with a raised floor so the boiling water could collect underneath and emanate the steam up the sides of the walls and into the room – on top of a mountain in the desert!!!).We also learned more about the site after Herod’s reign: after Herod was already dead and gone, in 66 A.D. Jews from Jerusalem fled to Masada when the temple was under attack. They stayed in Masada and were able to use all the facilities & left-behind food/tools/etc to live here. They became quite the talk of the town because they were able to protect themselves from Roman rule in this fortress. The Romans obviously were not pleased about this, so eventually they attempted to attack the palace. They used a battering ram and all sorts of catapults and the type of stuff you see in the movies. The Jews’ defeat was inevitable and they had to decide what to do – do they surrender and become slaves to Rome, or do they kill themselves and never give up (FYI – committing suicide is strictly forbidden in Jewish law). They opted to kill one another and cast lots as to who would go first…men had to kill their wives and children and then fall on the sword themselves (Can you imagine?!). By the time the Roman’s entered the gates to take the fortress, they were all dead and their armor was piled up in the middle of the courtyard. During excavations they even found what they believe were little pieces of stone that were thought to be the lots themselves. It was a controversial and sad act. The Romans then left Masada empty until some Monks inhabited the place a few years later. They were then driven out during an earthquake (I think), and then the place sat for 1900 years untouched and undiscovered. It wasn’t until 1904 that the location was discovered and then excavated in the 1960’s. Not really a super religious or holy place, but a real wonder of history.
Our next stop was Qumran, which is where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in the 1950’s. There were beautiful desert mountains in this area and the remnants of a isolated group of people who wrote the scrolls. Not too much is known about them, and I need to look up my information, but it was quite a cool site with some more ruins.
After Qumran, we headed to the Dead Sea where we swam! Or, rather – floated! As you may know, since the Dead Sea is very salty, all objects float in it (also nothing
can survive in it). It’s very murky, muddy, and deadly. Our guide said not to put your head under the water, and be very careful not to get the water in your eyes or mouth. It’s fairly easy to do that – and you actually do float on the surface with little effort…it’s wild!! Also the mud at the bottom of the sea is supposedly very good for the skin because of it’s oils and salt, so there all the people were literally rubbing all the mud all over their bodies for a mud-treatment right out there!! It was a blast – but quite tricky to finally wash out all the mud/sand from the shower. :)Our final stop was the “Old Jericho Road”. We stopped on a look-out point of sorts where you can get a birds-eye view of the path that leads all the way from Jericho to Jerusalem. This was the path that Jesus and many others took during their traveling to & from this city.
In this location was a Bedouin tribe – who are Arab’s that choose to live in the desert by themselves. They set up little camps which are pretty much made out of any stuff they can find around and are nomad’s of sorts. Very strange and totally a foreign way of living for me. In one sense, it’s kind of freeing to not have to live in a big city and be able to make up your own rules and not have to worry about your cable bill and going to work, etc – but on the other hand how do you eat, etc? Our guide says that they sell goats for about $250 a piece which gets them pretty good money, but also a primary source is on tourists. Immediately as they see a bus coming to this look-out point, they all scramble to meet us at the bus and offer us necklaces and scarf’s and camel rides, etc. It was kind of sad and really distracted from what we were there to do (to view the old Jericho road where Jesus travelled). So while we’re viewing the road, there are these little kids who are 6 or 7 years old being taught to peddle and almost beg us to buy their trinkets (one was maybe 3 years old). And that’s all they know. Living out in the middle of nowhere in the desert, all they know is some other people with white-skin come on a bus every few hours and consume all their stuff and give them money. It was very strange.
So, as I said with the tour of Masada, day #5 wasn’t exactly super religious in nature, but the sites that we toured certainly had an impact on the Biblical stories that we know and how they were woven together.
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