March 13 - Dead Sea

Masada has captured my imagination ever since I was a teenager and my mother gave me a book to read called The Tenth Measure.  It is an historical fiction about Masada and I highly recommend it if you are interested in reading a novel about Masada.  Ever since then it has been a place where I have wanted to visit.  The story of Masada is 'Live Free or Die".  The army has many ceremonies on top of Masada and it is a common place to have a Bar Mitzvah.

There are actually two stories of Masada - the first one is about Herod the Great who built a palace/fortress on top of Masada in 37BC. Beautiful mosaic floors and fresco wall paintings have been found from that time.  The second, and more important story happened after the second Temple was destroyed in 70AD. The battle was between 960 Jews (Zelots) and 1 legion of Roman soldiers (10,000 soliders and 10,000 slaves). In the end, the Zelots burned and destroyed Masada and killed themselves - they would rather kill themselves and their families than become slaves to the Romans.

Here are a few pictures from today.

view of the cable car from below

view of the walking path up the mountain from the cable car - Scott walked up - we had planned on walking down but by the time we were ready to leave it was much too hot

view of one of the Roman camps from on top of Masada (large square on the left side of the photo) 

listening to Ari

One of the structures from Herod

this man is writing a Torah Scroll on top of Masada 

view from the top of Masada

view of the ramp that the Romans built

view with the Dead Sea in the distance

The Dead Sea is the lowest place on earth.  It is 1,388 feet below sea level.  While we were on Masada we saw a plane flying below us - it is the only place in the world where a plane can fly below sea level. The Atlantic and Pacific Oceans are 3% salt - the Dead Sea is 35% salt and minerals.

We arrived back at our hotel in time to enjoy a relaxing afternoon by the Dead Sea.  Many of us enjoyed salt peels, mud wraps, and massages.  I'm sure you're happy that I didn't take any pictures.  But I did take a picture of John pushing Arlene around in the pool that was filled with water from the Dead Sea.