We had a long drive south today, to Masada, Qumran and the
Dead sea.
Due to the ever lower water levels in the dead sea the
ground around that area has begun suffering sink holes. This required that a
new road, higher up, was created – the benefit was that the drive was
straighter and faster, taking less time to get there.
We arrived at Masada before the day was really hot, although
by the time we’d been through the visitor centre and reached the top in the
hill that the old fortress was built on, the sun was becoming fierce.
There is a cable car to take visitors up, and we used that
because our party were mostly older than us and didn’t want to waste the approx
2 hours it takes to walk. At the top are
the inevitable ruins: storage areas, cisterns including a rainwater collection
system, parts of the former palace including a roman-style baths with hypocaust
and a ruined Byzantine church, that was forgotten about in the 14 centuries
between last use and rediscovery. Views are good, but the day is a little
misty, reducing the impact.
On the opposite side of the hill from the dead sea is the
remains of the Roman ramp used to gain access to the stronghold, the height
advantage being only around 250 feet instead of the 900+ feet on the other
side. The slope of the ramp is very
steep, and it seems amazing that they could get siege towers and war engines up
there to batter the walls. Viewing around the area, several Roman camps have
been marked out by the archaeologists using piles of stones to indicate where
walls once lay. The entire hill was surrounded by a wall more than 2M tall to
keep the besieged rebels trapped and unable to escape.
What’s the big deal with Masada? It was the last point of
resistance against Rome when Judah rebelled in AD 66-70, but was long
forgotten. If you asked a Jew what was the significance of Masada in their
faith then they would likely answer “none at all”. It has however been used as
a rallying point and symbol for resistance against oppressors in modern Israel.
The last rebels of the resistance all committed suicide the night before their
stronghold was entered by the Romans, only leaving 2 women and some children
alive to tell what happened. Josephus helpfully records those events for us,
possibly from interviewing the survivors, however the bodies of the rebels were
never found, and no-one knows what happened to them.
Off for lunch at the Qumran café. IIRC it was expensive and
only OK.
Qumran was the place of the finding of the dead sea scrolls,
in caves above the plateau left by the dead sea. This is now mid-afternoon and
the sun is fierce enough to make us perspire when stood in the shade. A note
about that – Israel is not the hot, dry place we’d been led to believe, but
instead was quite humid, making heat loss difficult to manage and frequently
resulting in everyone being soaked in sweat by the end of the day.
We look at distant hillsides with small dark openings.
Apparently after the first find, every cave in the area was visited by Bedouin
in the hope of finding treasure they could spend, as witnessed by the cigarette
butts left behind. Another cave can be seen, a little closer, that apparently
contained some key fragments and scrolls, and that does at least seem a little
more tangible.
The area around Qumran looked fascinating: wadis carved by
seasonal flash floods, wind and water sculpted rocks, strange and wonderful
formations. We only see these from the coach while driving through: I can’t
help but feel that in the quest for trying to satisfy the religious, we missed
much of the beauty and wonder in the country, and the decrepit Palestinian
areas seemed generally far more interesting that the smarter, cleaner but dull
Israeli areas, despite being filled with filth and rubbish.
And then to our Dead Sea ‘floating’ experience at Kali
beach.
I’d like to say it was amazing, to be buoyant like that, and
it did feel a little curious, but not tremendously different to floating in
fresh water – to me at least – other than finding it much harder to hold ones
head up because of the angle the floater’s body was forced into. Apparently the
high Magnesium chloride content is what
makes the water feel greasy on the skin, and the high level of salt causes the
lips to become quickly coated with a burning bitterness. Curiously, some fresh
grazes and cuts from my fall the day before at Herodium did not sting as
expected, and only began to smart a little after 10-15min. I also found some
large crystals of salt in the waters there, and brought them back with me to
the shore.
People who had been to the dead sea 30 years earlier
commented that there was no Kali beach resort with rip-off prices then, and you
could just turn up and swim where you liked. Also that the water was relatively
clean & clear and the shoreline edged with white crystals such as I had
found. I guess it’s unreasonable to expect people to turn down a strong
business opportunity.
This day did have a highlight - we were able to walk down
from the hotel into Jerusalem for the shabat/Sabbath gathering at the western
wall on Friday night. This turned out to be a mad headlong dash through crowded
streets, passing between busy shoppers buying presents and foodstuffs for
Ramadan. Everywhere there were interesting sights and smells, deals being done,
people meeting and greeting, traders plying their wares from small rooms that
looked almost like caves set into the buildings behind. I managed to get some
photos during the scramble through, selecting a wide aperture where there was
enough light for conventional photography, selecting a small one where there
was not for intentional camera movement pictures.
When we arrived at the western wall there was quite a lot of
similar activity to what we’d seen before, and the prayer areas were more
crowded. Chris went to pray, and again I stayed in the outer courtyard - God
knew where I was if he wanted me to talk to Him.
After about 10min by the wall we regroup & head back,
going a different way. One of the party is not well, and starts getting left
behind uphill, causing consternation for our party leaders. After a quick ‘help’
prayer a minibus taxi ‘magically’ appears (Israeli taxis don’t normally work on
the Sabbath) and for 140 shekels takes us all back to the hotel.
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