Sights and sites in Israel

     Along with religious sites, we visited historical sites also.  One of our tours took us east and then southeast of Jerusalem to the Dead Sea and Masada.  Shortly after leaving mountainous Jerusalem we dropped in elevation down into the Judean Desert and to the Dead Sea, the lowest place on earth at 1388 feet below sea level . The sudden drop into the desert of Israel had us passing Jericho, the oldest city in the world, past date palm plantations along the Dead Sea as well as passing the site where caves yielded the Dead Sea Scrolls.  They were discovered in 1946 when a goat that disappeared was found by a Bedouin in a small cave which hid the Scrolls.  Continuing south we soon approached Masada, a fortress built on the top of a mountain near the Dead Sea.  In the First century the fortress Masada was captured by Herod the Great, a Roman client king of Judea. He built a palace on top of this isolated mountain with slave labor that included fine palaces, heated baths, a sauna and an ingenious rock-hewn cistern system that filled with water in the winter time.  He stored a food supply in his palace to last for 7 years.

     After Herod’s death, Masada became a Roman garrison.  In the year 66 CE the Jews revolted after the fall of Jerusalem and destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem and overran this garrison.   They remained on Masada until the Roman Xth Legion and auxiliary units totaling 15,000 soldiers built an assault ramp of dirt and stone which was finished in the year 73 CE to crush the Jewish resistance.  A total of 960 Jewish men, women and children inhabited the mountain top at the time of this assault.  These inhabitants burned the food store rooms and vowed to not be enslaved by Rome.  When the Roman soldiers broke through the western wall of Masada, they found that all 960 of the inhabitants had committed suicide.

Please click on each photo to enlarge it.

Judean Desert

Jericho in the distance

Date Palms

Caves  in the white cliffs just above and to the left of the trees is where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered

Masada

Fastest way to the top of Masada




Ruins of Herod's Palace

Pillars below the sauna floor where heat from furnaces was pumped in by slaves to warm the floor and room

More ruins of Masada

Roman camp from the siege, in the valley



Roman assault ramp built to breech the fortress of Masada

        Young Israeli soldiers, as part of their training, are brought to Masada and take an oath that Masada will never fall again.   

Ibix, a goat like animal with long horns found in the desert near the Dead Sea

     After leaving Masada, our bus driver took us to a resort on the Dead Sea where people take mud from the Dead Sea, which is supposed to have medicinal properties, and smear it on their bodies.  Floating in the Dead Sea will wash off the mud as well as give you an unbelievable experience!  No way to sink in water that is 32% salt.  After leaving the waters, the next step is to enter a sulfur water sauna for additional healing before washing salt, sulfur water and any remaining mud off.

The Dead Sea

Floating in the Dead Sea



Dale all mudded up and ready to float



Her Crocks won't let her put her feet down on the bottom!




A Bedouin camp in the desert

     The photo with me wearing an Arab headpiece, a keffiyeh,  is to prepare for the Thursday camel sale.  I tried to trade Dale for a couple of camels and two wives but since she had no experience herding goats, the seller refused the deal.  You can only have more than one wife it you own more than one camel!  Of course, with the living conditions they survive in, the wives will smell like the goats so it would be hard to tell the difference.

      Friday morning, Feb 8^th, before heading to Italy on Sunday, Dale and I took out extra baggage into the office in Tel Aviv.  Before heading back to Jerusalem, we had lunch on the beach of the Mediterranean, then took a stroll along the shore watching swimmers and surfers.  We went to Tel Aviv on Friday because the Jewish Sabbath begins at sundown on Friday and ends at Sundown on Saturday.  Many places are closed during that time, including the office .

Swimming and surfing in the Mediterranean Sea

Walking along the beach

     On Saturday, we returned to the Old City of Jerusalem once more before leaving Jerusalem for the last time.   The apartment we rented is only about three blocks from the walls of the old city.  We visited the Tower of King David and learned the history of the old city and the conquerors who controlled it over the ages, wandered through the Jewish section, one of four sections,  Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Armenian, in the old city.

The Tower of King David

Archeological work in the Tower

In the Jewish quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem

     We saw quite a bit in Israel and learned much during the time we were there.  We could have spent another couple of weeks and still not see all we would like to see.  When we return to Tel Aviv after leaving Greece, Dale will have a couple of days in Tel Aviv with me before she returns home.  We can explore some of that city and included it in this blog.