Backtrack to Monday:
Today was a very good day for me. After making sure I’ve had downtime between the tours and nighttime activities, I’m feeling like a million bucks! Though I’ve got to stop eating snacks and granola bars instead of real meals – I’m actually starting to pack on the patties here in Israel!
The morning started off with a tour of Masada. When I get back to the States, first thing I’m going to do is to get my hands on either the 90 minute movie, or the 8.5 hour miniseries about Masada. Masada is like the Alamo of the Jews. Except more powerful. Herod originally built and fortified Masada as a citadel. According to our guide Alex, it was a very good investment as the city saved Herod’s life at one point. Apparently, after Herod's death, and when the Romans were conquering Jewish lands, a sect of the Jews took refuge and built a self-sustaining city on top of a mesa in a Judean Desert overlooking the Dead Sea. The inhabitants mastered the art of collecting water, and were able to survive comfortably, planting gardens and even building swimming pools. However, the Romans were able to build a rampart and breach the walls with a battering ram. Rather than surrender to the Romans, the inhabitants of Masada decided to take their own lives. Because suicide was looked down upon in the Jewish culture, ten soldiers killed all the citizens: men, women, and children. The ten then drew lots to choose which soldier would kill the other nine before taking his own life. The inhabitants burned everything except for the food to show the Roman soldiers that their death was not due to a lack of resources.
Two women and five children hid in cisterns and lived to tell the tale. In 1963, excavations revealed confirmation of their stories.
We then visited the Qumran Caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. The Qumran Caves was home to a Jewish sect, the Essenes, who basically were an ancient Jewish monastery, if there was such a thing. They placed a lot of focus on purification rituals, and spent long hours copying holy texts on scrolls. The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of about 900 documents, including the Hebrew Bible, “Apocryphal” manuscripts, and other “Sectarian” manuscripts.
And finally, we got to the part of the trip I was looking forward to the most: The Dead Sea! The Dead Sea is the lowest point on earth (in fact, the bar next to it boasted on its sign that it was the “lowest bar” in the world…) and the water contains about 35% salt. The Dead Sea was so salty as opposed to the Red Sea even though they are both fed by the Jordan River is because the Red Sea empties out to another river, while the Dead Sea is landlocked. So water flows in, but water does not flow out. As a result, the only way for the water to exit is through evaporation, leaving all the rich minerals behind. Because so much of the water is being used for tourism, the Dead Sea is slowly drying out; in fact some predict that if nothing is done, the Dead Sea will disappear by 2050!
The Dead Sea REALLY is salty. To float, you sit in the water and lean back. Next thing you know, you are floating on your back. The floor of the sea is slimy mud. I slathered it all over my body and let it wash off as I floated. I can understand why people sell this mud as spa treatments – my skin has never felt so soft! It really is like a day at the spa. One thing I was unprepared for though, is how salty my skin got. A little water splashed on my face and lips (you REALLY have to watch the eyes in the Dead Sea – OUCH!), and as the water dried, it left a film of salt all over me. By the end of my float, my lips were puckered up from all the salt! As Alex said to us – make sure you rinse off thoroughly after the float. Otherwise you will end up like Lot’s wife: a pillar of salt! It was SUCH a great experience!
Back to the hotel we go. Tomorrow we join a new tour guide (on a bona fide tour bus!) who will take us to more Holy sites. Tomorrow is also a holy day in Jerusalem (something about ….?) and so EVERYTHING is closed just like on the Sabbath.
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