Occasionally, we would spot some green in the midst of all the brown, often from the leaves of the date palms. One such location was En Gedi, where David stayed when fleeing from Saul. We were supposed to stop there, but due to traffic, our schedule had to be slightly modified. So, we only saw En Gedi as we drove past it.
So...where did we start off the tour that day? Masada. Honestly, I really didn't know much about Masada before we went there. Ok...correction...I didn't know ANYTHING about Masada. Sometimes, I'm embarrassed to admit how little I know about history. I never really liked history when I was in school. It was rare to find a teacher who could teach history in such a way that made it interesting to me. I am very thankful that history is becoming more interesting to me now, and that I'm married to someone who knows quite a bit about history (and many, many, many other things.) Needless to say, I learned a little bit about this place called "Masada" that we saw.
Masada is a large plateau on the top of a mountain. It has three tiers/steps on the one side (as seen on the right side of the mountain in the picture below). Herod the Great built a fortress/palace there as a refuge to use as a last resort. He built it in such a way that it would provide great defenses against the enemy while also being quite a Roman luxury.
For those of you who find yourself in the same position I was in regarding Masada...clueless...here is some of the story about that place...and in the words of my studly husband (since he took notes on it and wrote up a really good summary of the history of the place). So...all the credit for the next paragraph goes to my incredible husband.
When Jews revolted against Rome in 66 AD, Rome responded heavily, destroyed the temple and much of Jerusalem in 70. The Zealots (leading the revolt) fled during that time to Masada, took the few Romans guarding it by surprise, and took over the fortress. About 1000 total (maybe 300 fighting men, the rest women, children, and the elderly) held out against a massive Roman siege for about three years, finally succumbing in 73. Late one day the Romans finally breached the wall, and the next day would storm the fortress. The men would be slaughtered, the women probably raped to death, the children left to die. Facing that, and with suicide not an option to Jews, the zealots wrote their names on pottery shards and drew ten of them (many such shards have been found). These ten became the death squad, slaughtering everyone else in the fortress (except two women who hid in a cistern, and told the story first to the Romans, then to Josephus). Then one of them killed the other nine. The last survivor threw himself off the mountain. When the Romans came in the morning, they found everyone dead.
When I learned this story, part of me felt sick by the thought of that kind of death of a group of people. It's not a fun story. However, I was challenged by it. If I'm faced with a reality that would be ugly, will I choose to trust God through it, or will I find a way to escape to something seemingly more "comfortable"? Will I allow God to work in and through me no matter what the situation is? Although it's easy to know the right answers, it's much more challenging to answer those when really examining the heart or when actually faced with difficult circumstances. I truly want my life to bring God honor and glory...in the good and in the bad times.
On with the pictures...
Quite a bit of the fortress was still there. Everything below the black squiggly lines on the stone walls were original remains. In some of the rooms in the living quarters, there were frescoes painted on some of the walls, which were over 2000 years old. The partial frescoes on the walls that we saw were beautiful. On the one hand, I couldn't help but wonder how brilliant the colors had once been. On the other hand, I also saw beauty in the age of them...the years, the history.
There were some really large food storage rooms there, too. There were 16 of them that were each about 60' long by 12' wide by 8-10' high. They had been packed with dried preserved food. There had been more than enough food to feed 1000 people for over 3 years. With as much as I raid my parents' pantry whenever I'm visiting, I definitely thought of my dad when I saw those rooms. Maybe...if they ever remodel their kitchen again, they'll choose to expand their pantry to this size????
There were several squares of stone in the area. These squares were the remains of the Roman camps. Since the Romans couldn't take the fortress by storm, they decided to hang out for a while in the area until they could successfully conquer the fortress. They hung out there for about 3 years until they attacked Masada.
We briefly went into the remains of the synagogue. It was the only synagogue we saw that had been built when the temple was still standing.
We also saw the ramp that the Romans built over the course of 3 years while facing some challenges to their construction project...namely, having large, heavy stones (like cannon balls) thrown at them by the zealots. Once the ramp was built, the Romans got a siege tower with battering ram up the ramp to attack. The battering ram was successful, which led the Romans to victory over Masada.
After our time at Masada, we went to Qumran. Along the way, we saw some great scenery of the Dead Sea.
I knew just as much about Qumran as I did about Masada before this trip. The Essnes (a group of Jewish ultra-radicals) moved out there. They rejected the temple, envisioning a more perfect "true temple". They sought to live a life of constant purification. Many, many, many years later (as in 1947), a Bedouin goatherd was looking for his lost goat and found the first of what is now known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. The cave in the picture below was where the scroll was found.
Our last stop of the day before heading back to the hotel was the Dead Sea. We had the opportunity to do a little "swimming" in the Dead Sea. We actually found that swimming was rather difficult...so it turned out to be more floating than swimming. It's really crazy to be able to basically sit back in water and do nothing to float. The water just floats you on its own. Nathan and I did a little tandem floating, which was fun. Some people slathered mud all over themselves. We didn't feel the inclination to do the same. I did notice, however, that even after just a short time in that water, my skin felt softer. I got a glimpse as to why cosmetics made from the Dead Sea and it's mud are so popular.
As I was heading up the stairs near the beach to go to the bus, I paused to look at the flags of various nations. I don't remember which country the red flag is from, but I had to get a picture of the other 3 that were right in a row: Argentina, USA, and Israel. Unfortunately, there wasn't much wind, so you can't seem them all that well.
Can it be? There is only one more day of the tour left! And it was definitely a good one! So...stay tuned for the next blog....
