The Dead Sea (Day 3)

To start this blog off, here's a picture of the room we stayed in. Everything was orange and it was amazing. :)


October 13, 2008
After breakfast, but before heading to Masada, we paused to look at a model of Israel at the Hostel. While not completely accurate, it was fun to see and to be able to recognize places we’ve seen in 3D.

From there it was off to the back of Masada where we hiked up the siege ramp (or beside it). In retrospect, I’m really glad that we hiked up that side rather than the other side.

Once on top we admired some more of Herod’s architecture. We visited the North Palace and the Bath house (both with some remaining plaster and painted walls, I believe).

Quite impressive. I poked around in a few other places before finally heading to the cistern. The million gallon cistern. Wow. That was huge. And to think of the work it would take to fill it in the middle of a desert with around 1 inch of rain annually. Trey had poured out his nalgene down there, just to demonstrate. It barely made a damp spot in the dust. Now there’s an image of futility.

We also discussed the likelihood of Josephus’ story having actually happened. Probably not too likely. Still, it’s a good (though tragic) story. At least in part because of that story, it’s become a huge symbol to the State of Israel. (Side note here: after we had this discussion on top of Masada, someone asked my archaeology professor, who, it must be noted, is Jewish, what he thought of Josephus' story. He seemed to think that it was fairly reasonable and probably, in its basic form, a good representation of what actually happened. So there are differing opinions.) Masada is also important in the archaeological world as the originator of three things: it was the first time volunteers paid for the opportunity to dig, it made the first use of the re-construction line, and (almost) all the remains on it are from one time period, making it a “type site” for first century pottery.

We got to hike down the snake path which was very exciting. The last time I was at Masada it was a bit more rushed and I had to take the tram both up and down. The snake path really wasn’t bad to go down, but it was really, really hot. Plus, I was really hungry by this point. So at the bottom I was really tired. And hungry. And rather warm. But it was fun.

The next stop was the Dead Sea where we floated for a while and then had an amazing lunch of hotdogs and non-pita bread! It was wonderful.

After lunch we stopped at En Gedi and hiked around and swam a bit. The group I was with on the way down really enjoyed seeing the Ibex and Conies and took lots of pictures of them. It was a beautiful area. Since I’ve been in Israel I’ve come to appreciate water and greenery more and more. The desert is beautiful, but I’m always glad to see trees and flowers. The fresh water was especially refreshing after the 38% salt content in the Dead Sea.

The last stop of the day was Qumran. I must admit that by this time I was feeling pretty worn out. We’d been three days on the road, and that day especially I was worn out by heat, hiking, and playing in water. So, I tried to summon up enough energy for this last stop. There were approximately three billion people there, but I think we managed to avoid most of them. We watched a video, sort of about Qumran. It had cool flying pictures. I like those.  It also suggested that John the Baptist may have been part of that group for a time. Interesting thought. Some think that Jesus may have spent some time here too. They had interesting ideas about the Messiah. I wonder… We walked around the site which was interesting, but there wasn’t a whole lot to see. Then we climbed up to a cave. Lovely view. Up there we talked about Ezekiel’s visions and the water of life flowing out of Jerusalem, healing the waters of the Dead Sea, and spreading to the Nations. Someday…Lord, help us spread that water now, as much as we can.


And now we’re home. Over all, it was an amazing trip. I’ll need some time to process it all, but I really enjoyed it. Now for some sleep…!