Masada and the Dead Sea

-Masada was built by King Herod (yup, again...him and his "fancy" places) and had a complex system of cisterns and storage areas for water and food. It was also attacked by the Romans in 70-73 AD. Instead of giving up Masada and their lives to the Romans, the Jews inside committed mass suicide. Apparently, "Masada shall not fall again" is part of the the oath the modern Israeli army takes.

And there it is atop the hill.

-Heather and I walked the snake path up the front to get to the top. Better for the anticipation of getting to the top. It honestly looked smaller than I thought, but it was just that you couldn't see all of it. Here's part of the wall looking toward the Dead Sea.

-The unsaturated crevises below.

-Me at the western wall.

-This is one of the dozen plus cisterns to supply the fortress with water. Heather's at the bottom.

-And looking up.

-This is what's left of the Roman ramp they used to lay seige to Masada. Apparently, they only found 2 old women and 5 children alive - hiding in a cistern.

-Part of the later Byzantine church.
-The oldest synongogue.

-Herod's three-tiered palace on the eastern side.

-And each Israeli school group gets their own soldier with machine gun on their site visit (he also had a Che patch)!

-One of the storage rooms.
-What Herod's palace would have looked like.

-Part of the fresco inside.

-We took the cable car back down the hill.
-All the Jaffa oranges or other citrus you would want!

-On the way back to Jerusalem we saw an Ibex!

Coming back from Petra...

-A salt pile at the Dead Sea factory.

-"Lot's Wife"

-People having fun floating in the Dead Sea.












-I did the whole spa thing. I refused to get in the nasty looking and rotten smelling sulfur pools indoors, but I covered myself with the Dead Sea mud and let myself bake in the sun. You find out where any scratch you may have exactly is.

-It looks like something you'd lube up a giant tractor with, but it was fun. I ended up taking a sulfur shower, but that didn't last too long. I went for the fresh water (I'm convinced a week later I could still smell sulfur in my hair!).

-On the way to the beach, I found this...the official En Gedi weather station!
-And here's the beach. Lake Huron has nothing on the Dead Sea - you have to wear shoes so you don't cut your feet on the built-up salt on the shore.
-That's all salt - supersaturated.
-You can't push yourself down. You just float. It's pretty cool. It's more than just salty water.
-But the salt and other minerals cake on to everything!

-416 meters below sea level!