What? You say I can go visit the LOWEST SPOT on the planet? (On land of course... we all know Mariana's Trench isn't a hot vacation destination!) Sign me up for THAT superlative!
Walking to the spot where the mini bus would pick us up early in the morning, we walked by this interesting sculpture work. I think it's creepy adult dolls (rather than those creepy baby dolls we are used to seeing!) Or at least it's someone's very intense art work!
Each morning, the mini bus would pick us up (and a few others in our neighborhood) and drop us off at a larger bus stop to get on a much bigger bus with more people on it that would take us to our final destination. On this day, our guide was the very boisterous, Ami! Heading out of Tel Aviv on our way through the West Bank, we once again saw the walls that separated Palestine from Israel.
The kids were super excited that this seemed like the VERY FIRST desert they had ever been in, the Judean desert. It did look dry.
Our first stop of the day was at SEA LEVEL! They had a very angry camel there, led around for photos by a Bedouin man. That camel was yelling, loud.
Bailey's in the Judean desert at sea level.
Grant with Or-Nah Ran's Awakening sculpture of a woman's hand stretching up.
We then drove through Kalia Beach (where we would return later to swim in the Dead Sea) and past these really cool painted buildings.
These buildings with the paintings on them were so funny! SMALL - TALK. Am I dead? Probably!
Our first glimpse of the Dead Sea shows a visible white, salty crust on the shoreline.
Dang, we are WAY below sea level now! Thanks to Todd for thinking to take this screen shot!
I know we didn't get to see the Dead Sea Scrolls (also known as the Qumran Caves Scrolls), but almost a thousand manuscripts were found in a series of 11 caves by Bedouin men (and later, archaeologists) in the late 1940s to mid 1950s. These caves were, at the time a part of Jordan. Does this mean I've been to Jordan? Ok, I'm really reaching here! Anyway, they date back to between 400 BC and 300 AD and were mostly either Old Testament Bible readings or other religious beliefs that were held at the time. Interestingly, there were 7 full scrolls found and 4 were purchased by the Syrian Orthodox archbishop for about $100. He later (no kidding) sold them in the classified section of the Wall Street Journal for $250,000 - to the archaeologist who had the other three full scrolls.
I LOVE Ahava products, so I was pretty excited to go to this big old Ahava store along the Dead Sea. Outside, they have welcoming flags for many countries. This little K-Pop loving girl was excited to see the South Korean flag!
Honestly, every time you turned around in this country you ran into something that had a Biblical connection with. This was the Apple of Sodom. It's native to the Dead Sea (and of course, Sodom which was located in the Jordan plain) Some say that it was the "forbidden fruit" of Eve and Adam, although many today know it as a poisonous fruit. In ancient times, they said it dissolved into ash and smoke when it was plucked.
The Apple of Sodom is on Todd's left but he chooses to look to the right at some less offensive shrubbery.
We got back on the bus after our stop at the Ahava outlet and continued our trip south along Route 90. On the way, we passed Ein Gedi which is a national park that is fed by two streams, making this green oasis in the middle of the Judean Desert (or... ok, to be fair, it's pretty near to the coast of the Dead Sea!) You can't see it here, but there are some really pretty waterfalls in this park.
As we continued south on 90, we finally got our first glimpse of the Masada Fortress. It sits high up on a rocky plateau which is technically at the edge of the Judean desert.
King Herod built a fortress up here somewhere between 37 BC and 4 AD, which were the years that Herod reigned. There was actually a fort here as far back as about 150-75 BC, but it was Herod who really built it up.
Welcome to Masada National Park! Actually, I took this picture on my way out but it fit better here!
This is a huge picture of what Masada Fortress would have looked like back in its heyday, including the Roman camps that were filled with Roman soldiers that were about to plunder the fortress.
I had to mentally prepare for this one. All I could think of was, "What if there's an earthquake while we are on this thing?"
OK, here we go!
Don't close your eyes, or you'll miss out on seeing the famous Snake Path that leads up to the fortress. Many people hike it very early in the day so that they can see the sunrise over the Jordanian mountains. If you're hiking in the summer, you almost HAVE to do it early because you'd probably melt in the heat.
Where desert meets the sea, at the lowest place on earth.
Unfortunately, the Dead Sea is receding at a fairly rapid pace - more than a meter (or about 3 feet) per YEAR. They have a project in the works called the Red Sea-Dead Sea Water Conveyance that will bring water with very high salt content from the desalinization process to the Dead Sea to restore the water levels, but it won't be done for several years.
You get a good sense of how high and large Masada is when you're at the top. See the visitors center and the cable car? You can also see the Snake Path from the top.
Of course, nowadays they have fancy sky walks that they didn't have 2,000 years ago.
This is essentially the same picture as the one above but I like the lighting on the other one better.
One thing that was "left" were the Roman camps that were set up as they made plans to invade Masada. Masada changed hands over the years - first it was built by Herod and his Roman soldiers. Herod was still a Roman leader that headed up the vassal state of Judea, even though we often think of him as the "King of the Jews." That title was actually bestowed upon him by the Roman Empire. Herod, who had been made King of the Jews under Mark Antony, died in 4 AD. In 66 AD, the small extremist group of Jews known as the Sicarii stormed the fortress and took over.
The Sicarii rebel's "rule" over Masada only lasted about 7 years. In 73-74 AD, the Roman legion, led by Lucias Flavius Silva recaptured Masada. The siege took so long because they had to build a ramp that would allow them to drive a battering ram up to breach the walls (more on this in a bit.). Josephus, the Roman-Jewish historian had interviewed those who were at the siege - and the Roman Commanders said that the 960 people who were defensing Masada at the time (including women and children) set the place on fire and committed mass suicide. There's some debate whether this happened though, as they haven't found any archaeological evidence to support it.
In the above photo, you can see evidence of one of the Roman camps that were set up during the siege. It's a square (diamond?) shaped area that's just to the southwest of the palm tree-lined parking lot in the very center of the picture. There's also a rock wall that extends even farther to the southwest to the edge of the picture that the Romans built to surround the fortress. It was designed to slow/stop the escape of the rebels. It extends all the way around this massive rock - which is approximately 2.5 miles of wall that also included 15 towers. There were also a total of 8 Roman camps.
You first enter the fortress through the Snake Gate, which of course, is at the end of the Snake Path. You can see some original frescoes on the walls that they have preserved.
Masada consists (consisted?) of two palaces built by Herod (the Western and the Northern), Roman style baths, storehouses (for food and liquids), a Synagogue and housing for the soldiers that were up there. The Western Palace was the first one built, but it was the last one we visited.
Natalie representing her favorite K-Pop band in front of the guard tower and the Western Palace.
Our first stop was the Northern Palace where we were able to peek into some of the soldier barracks.
While the excavation of Masada has been going on for decades, not all of the fortress has undergone the incredible restoration. Some of it sits just like this: a big pile of rocks.
There were MANY storerooms in the Northern Palace for the incredible amounts of foods, liquids (wine!) and weapons.
This is a model of what the three-tiered Northern Palace looked like. It was really impressive! The upper level included King Herod's private quarters, a private bathhouse, and a library, while the lower two tiers included reception and banquet halls.
These are the remnants of the two lower tiers of the Northern Palace of Masada - I took this picture from the top tier on King Herod's portico.
Grant is so funny. He was pretending that he was shooting arrows at the enemy down below.
This is a mosaic floor with motives popular in the Jewish art of the Herodian period. I can't believe it's lasted this long - thankfully it's blocked off so people can't walk on it.
I feel like I've shown a couple of pictures in different ways, but you can really see here the way they were able to capture the water as it flowed down from the mountains. Also, in the middle near the bottom center, you can see a part of the battering ram ramp that the Romans built when they invaded Masada in 73-74 AD. The ramp took many months to build and was built on a natural slope with rocks and earth reinforced with wood.
I think the thing that Ami was MOST excited to show us were the Roman steam baths. The Roman bathhouses were not just for cleansing, but also for the soldiers - and King Herod's social time. They were quite opulent with tile floors and walled frescoes.
This used to be a toilet at the baths of Masada. I don't know why I thought this was so funny, but I have a very real fear of going to the bathroom anywhere other than my house so it gave me great anxiety to see this! This sat in the corner of the exercise area which was situated in front of the baths.
The caldarium was a hot steam bath where Herod and his soldiers were able to clean up and relax. In front of the baths was a yard area where people could exercise (see photo above this one.) From there, you could walk into this room and undress. They aren't super sure what this room was, although there's some speculation that this was maybe a pool for the kiddos? It was likely a room to undress and prepare for your sauna.
In our next edition of "Todd doesn't fit anywhere," we head to Israel, where Todd demonstrates that he does not fit into 1st century fortresses! This little room was a connecting room between the actual sauna and a stairway down to a cold bath. If you get too hot in the sauna, you could cool off in the cold spa that was behind me.
Next they would enter the baths, or a caldarium that had a heating system under the floor, as well as a method to heat the room through vented bricks that lined the walls (as you can see on the right.) Hot water was sent through and it created a sauna type atmosphere. Ami mentioned quite frequently that certain spices (ahem... drugs, but he wouldn't call them that because he didn't want to talk about drugs in front of my kids.) He mentioned this many times, which was clearly his favorite thing to talk about!
I don't have a picture of it, but what you can't see is the arched ceiling. Why? Because the steam was really hot (obviously) and if there had been a flat ceiling, it would have dripped down on the people sitting around beneath it. With an arched ceiling, the water droplets that formed on the rounded ceiling flowed back down the arch and down the wall, avoiding hitting people below.
There was a really neat display that showed how they were able to capture the water that flowed down from the Wadi, and then were able to channel it through aqueducts into the cisterns. There's a little fountain of water that you can capture (far right) and then pour at the top as Ami is showing us in this picture, which really gives a great visual.
The room above was known as the Casemate of the Scrolls. As the historic marker sign outside of it said, "A large and rare concentration of finds form the time of the revolt was found in a corner of the room of the wall in which we stand: inscribed sheets of papyrus, fragments of scrolls, silver shekel coins, textiles, sandals and glass vessels and bone implements. Among the finds was a pay record of a Roman cavalryman in the Tenth Legion."
On the west side of Masada, you can see another Roman encampment in the giant square, just right of center. The beginning of the ramp that they led the battering ram up is on the far left.
I just liked this black bird, hanging out on top of Masada.
The ramp that was built by the Romans for their battering ram was built so that the Romans could knock down the Western Gate and storm the fortress.
This is just one example of the cisterns that were built into Masada. Herod's gang would mine the stone to build the fortress and they made a cistern of the empty remnants of the mine. The placard says, "Herod quarried numerous cisterns on the summit and the northwestern slope. Rainwater that flowed in the floods in the nearby streamed was stored here. T he water was collected by a system of dams and two aqueducts, parts of which can be seen to this day. Two rows of cistern were dug in the slope, eight in the upper row and four in the lower, that contained a total of 40,000 cubic meters of water. From the cisterns, two paths led up the mountain, one from the upper row to the Water Gate in the northwest of the mountain, and the other from the lower row to the Snack Path Gate in the east. Convoys of animals brought water up tot Masada along these paths. When they reached the summit, the water was poured into a system of channels leading into the cisterns throughout the mountain."
We continued on, following Ami past the Colambarium Tower, which was used as a Dovecote. Inside, the doves were raised for either fertilizer (ahem, their feces) and sometimes for food.
The placard outside of the Breaching Point read, "Here the siege of Masada ended. The ramp that the Romans had built up to the summit of the mountain reached to below this point. At the top of the ramp rose the siege tower, and it was the battering ram with which the Romans assaulted the casemate wall. However, the rebels had built a wall of earth and wood, against which the battering ram was ineffective." Unfortunately, the belief is that when the Roman's entered Masada after taking down the casemate wall, they were met with silence as the roughly 960 Sicarii took their own lives before the Roman's could get to them. I mentioned this before but there is some doubt to this story.
He seems so little in that big room at Masada! He loves pigeons and doves, so he really loved the Dovecote. I always joke that he's like Bert from Sesame Street!
The last stop we made at the fortress was the west bath house (known as a mikvah, or mikveh as I've seen it spelled both ways) at the Western Palace. This was used for Jewish spiritual rituals and purity.
Alas, it was time to head back down the cable car. It had been warm up at the top of Masada, but it was November so we could manage. I really can't imagine hot how it would be up there in the middle of the summer!
One of the wildest things about the Dead Sea is the white crust that surrounds it. It's just a salty crust, like the entire Dead Sea is just a big old margarita!
I kind of forgot it was Black Friday until I saw this. Oh right! Get your mini soaps for only $3 USD!
I'm at minus 413 meters, let's go have a drink at the lowest bar on earth! (Ok, later because we have to get into the Dead Sea at this point!)
Here I am! I've seen a lot of superlatives in my day but this one. THIS ONE. This one is definitely my fave.
I had heard that swimming in the Dead Sea was weird. Everyone I knew who had gone there had a tough time trying to describe it. It wasn't too crowded when we got there. I'm going to assume this was because it was nearly dusk on a Friday in November! A few minutes before sunset on a Friday is when Shabbat starts, so that might have had something to do with it!
Because I had my good camera in my bag and I didn't want anyone to steal it, I stayed up on shore. I also did so to document Todd and the kids first adventure into the Dead Sea. It was a little chilly, but in the end, I got in, so you know it couldn't have been too cold. Also... do NOT ever pass up an opportunity to float in the Dead Sea if you can!
I love Natalie's face right after she fell backwards into the Dead Sea. That's kind of how you have to do it. And you have to lay on your back.
If you notice Natalie here, the water has literally moved her feet over. The water just takes you and lifts body parts up to the surface that aren't already there. And once you lose control, you're done for. Also, you can go cover yourself in the therapeutic mud and then cleanse yourself in the water, like this guy on the right has done.
The kids (and Todd) decided to jump into the mud that lines the shore of the Dead Sea at Kalia Beach.
Gross. Actually you're not gross at all, buddy. I'm proud of you for doing this.
Natalie wanted no part of that in her hair, so she pretty much stopped at the waist. And I don't blame her at all for that! Such a smart and sassy girl.
Todd actually SAT in one of the mud pools on the beach. His skin has never been more beautiful. Ok, I kid, but the three of them were really covered in it. The showers they took after we got out went on and on and on... it's really hard to get all of the mud and oily water off of them.
Oh, okay! Danger! Mines! You really can't (or maybe you can) imagine the number of people that went over the wire (that's at my knees here) and crossed into this area to take a picture. Face. Palm. This is how the world ends, right here. The sheer stupidity of mankind.
It's definitely advised to take a shower on the beach before you go to the actual showers in the locker room up the hill. It took many days to get the yuck out of those bathing suits. We put the suits, shoes, backpacks and pretty much anything we had with us at the beach into the washing machine in our apartment in Tel Aviv and we STILL had to wash it all back in Germany!
So everyone had to go and shower - which is never easy with kids. We're on the cusp of that being super easy ("just go in and take a shower, here's your towel!") But we aren't quite there yet - especially in Israel where no one cares about being naked, but my very American children still have a BIG issue with that. So it always takes longer than expected, and we gave ourselves a solid half hour. When we got dressed and out of the locker rooms, people were giving the 10 minute warning about the bus leaving. I. AM. NOT. LEAVING. THIS. PLACE. WITHOUT. THIS. SUPERLATIVE. And Todd knew I would never forgive myself for NOT getting a drink at the lowest bar in the world. Quick! Grab a drink! And a photo! Take a sip! LET'S GO!
Walking to the spot where the mini bus would pick us up early in the morning, we walked by this interesting sculpture work. I think it's creepy adult dolls (rather than those creepy baby dolls we are used to seeing!) Or at least it's someone's very intense art work!
Each morning, the mini bus would pick us up (and a few others in our neighborhood) and drop us off at a larger bus stop to get on a much bigger bus with more people on it that would take us to our final destination. On this day, our guide was the very boisterous, Ami! Heading out of Tel Aviv on our way through the West Bank, we once again saw the walls that separated Palestine from Israel.
The kids were super excited that this seemed like the VERY FIRST desert they had ever been in, the Judean desert. It did look dry.
Our first stop of the day was at SEA LEVEL! They had a very angry camel there, led around for photos by a Bedouin man. That camel was yelling, loud.
Bailey's in the Judean desert at sea level.
Grant with Or-Nah Ran's Awakening sculpture of a woman's hand stretching up.
And now, for the main event! Three crazies at the sea level sign! I like that the A in "Sea" appears to be a replacement, like someone just used masking tape.
We traveled from "Sea Level" down to the actual Dead Sea - and eventually passed it on the west bank of the sea down to Masada. After we got off of Route 1 and onto Route 90, we didn't get to see the exact spot where they recovered the Dead Sea Scrolls, but it WAS in that mountain range on the left.
We then drove through Kalia Beach (where we would return later to swim in the Dead Sea) and past these really cool painted buildings.
These buildings with the paintings on them were so funny! SMALL - TALK. Am I dead? Probably!
Our first glimpse of the Dead Sea shows a visible white, salty crust on the shoreline.
Dang, we are WAY below sea level now! Thanks to Todd for thinking to take this screen shot!
I know we didn't get to see the Dead Sea Scrolls (also known as the Qumran Caves Scrolls), but almost a thousand manuscripts were found in a series of 11 caves by Bedouin men (and later, archaeologists) in the late 1940s to mid 1950s. These caves were, at the time a part of Jordan. Does this mean I've been to Jordan? Ok, I'm really reaching here! Anyway, they date back to between 400 BC and 300 AD and were mostly either Old Testament Bible readings or other religious beliefs that were held at the time. Interestingly, there were 7 full scrolls found and 4 were purchased by the Syrian Orthodox archbishop for about $100. He later (no kidding) sold them in the classified section of the Wall Street Journal for $250,000 - to the archaeologist who had the other three full scrolls.
I LOVE Ahava products, so I was pretty excited to go to this big old Ahava store along the Dead Sea. Outside, they have welcoming flags for many countries. This little K-Pop loving girl was excited to see the South Korean flag!
Honestly, every time you turned around in this country you ran into something that had a Biblical connection with. This was the Apple of Sodom. It's native to the Dead Sea (and of course, Sodom which was located in the Jordan plain) Some say that it was the "forbidden fruit" of Eve and Adam, although many today know it as a poisonous fruit. In ancient times, they said it dissolved into ash and smoke when it was plucked.
The Apple of Sodom is on Todd's left but he chooses to look to the right at some less offensive shrubbery.
We got back on the bus after our stop at the Ahava outlet and continued our trip south along Route 90. On the way, we passed Ein Gedi which is a national park that is fed by two streams, making this green oasis in the middle of the Judean Desert (or... ok, to be fair, it's pretty near to the coast of the Dead Sea!) You can't see it here, but there are some really pretty waterfalls in this park.
As we continued south on 90, we finally got our first glimpse of the Masada Fortress. It sits high up on a rocky plateau which is technically at the edge of the Judean desert.
King Herod built a fortress up here somewhere between 37 BC and 4 AD, which were the years that Herod reigned. There was actually a fort here as far back as about 150-75 BC, but it was Herod who really built it up.
Welcome to Masada National Park! Actually, I took this picture on my way out but it fit better here!
This is a huge picture of what Masada Fortress would have looked like back in its heyday, including the Roman camps that were filled with Roman soldiers that were about to plunder the fortress.
I had to mentally prepare for this one. All I could think of was, "What if there's an earthquake while we are on this thing?"
OK, here we go!
Don't close your eyes, or you'll miss out on seeing the famous Snake Path that leads up to the fortress. Many people hike it very early in the day so that they can see the sunrise over the Jordanian mountains. If you're hiking in the summer, you almost HAVE to do it early because you'd probably melt in the heat.
Where desert meets the sea, at the lowest place on earth.
Unfortunately, the Dead Sea is receding at a fairly rapid pace - more than a meter (or about 3 feet) per YEAR. They have a project in the works called the Red Sea-Dead Sea Water Conveyance that will bring water with very high salt content from the desalinization process to the Dead Sea to restore the water levels, but it won't be done for several years.
You get a good sense of how high and large Masada is when you're at the top. See the visitors center and the cable car? You can also see the Snake Path from the top.
Of course, nowadays they have fancy sky walks that they didn't have 2,000 years ago.
This is essentially the same picture as the one above but I like the lighting on the other one better.
One thing that was "left" were the Roman camps that were set up as they made plans to invade Masada. Masada changed hands over the years - first it was built by Herod and his Roman soldiers. Herod was still a Roman leader that headed up the vassal state of Judea, even though we often think of him as the "King of the Jews." That title was actually bestowed upon him by the Roman Empire. Herod, who had been made King of the Jews under Mark Antony, died in 4 AD. In 66 AD, the small extremist group of Jews known as the Sicarii stormed the fortress and took over.
The Sicarii rebel's "rule" over Masada only lasted about 7 years. In 73-74 AD, the Roman legion, led by Lucias Flavius Silva recaptured Masada. The siege took so long because they had to build a ramp that would allow them to drive a battering ram up to breach the walls (more on this in a bit.). Josephus, the Roman-Jewish historian had interviewed those who were at the siege - and the Roman Commanders said that the 960 people who were defensing Masada at the time (including women and children) set the place on fire and committed mass suicide. There's some debate whether this happened though, as they haven't found any archaeological evidence to support it.
In the above photo, you can see evidence of one of the Roman camps that were set up during the siege. It's a square (diamond?) shaped area that's just to the southwest of the palm tree-lined parking lot in the very center of the picture. There's also a rock wall that extends even farther to the southwest to the edge of the picture that the Romans built to surround the fortress. It was designed to slow/stop the escape of the rebels. It extends all the way around this massive rock - which is approximately 2.5 miles of wall that also included 15 towers. There were also a total of 8 Roman camps.
You first enter the fortress through the Snake Gate, which of course, is at the end of the Snake Path. You can see some original frescoes on the walls that they have preserved.
The fortress itself is really an engineering marvel given that it was built about 2000 years ago, on top of a mesa. How DID Herod's people put this together this high up, without modern equipment? Our guide, Ami told us that they actually had quarries up on the mountain so that they didn't have to go far. When they were done mining the quarry for rock, they turned them into cisterns. This is in the entrance to the northern palace area, where they had a quarry back in the day.
When (rare) rainfall came down the mountain, it was captured and sent along channels to the cisterns. It was used for drinking water, the baths, decorative fountains as well as for irrigation for what some believe was a garden and vineyard on the southern side of the mountain.
Masada consists (consisted?) of two palaces built by Herod (the Western and the Northern), Roman style baths, storehouses (for food and liquids), a Synagogue and housing for the soldiers that were up there. The Western Palace was the first one built, but it was the last one we visited.
Natalie representing her favorite K-Pop band in front of the guard tower and the Western Palace.
Our first stop was the Northern Palace where we were able to peek into some of the soldier barracks.
While the excavation of Masada has been going on for decades, not all of the fortress has undergone the incredible restoration. Some of it sits just like this: a big pile of rocks.
There were MANY storerooms in the Northern Palace for the incredible amounts of foods, liquids (wine!) and weapons.
This is a model of what the three-tiered Northern Palace looked like. It was really impressive! The upper level included King Herod's private quarters, a private bathhouse, and a library, while the lower two tiers included reception and banquet halls.
These are the remnants of the two lower tiers of the Northern Palace of Masada - I took this picture from the top tier on King Herod's portico.
Grant is so funny. He was pretending that he was shooting arrows at the enemy down below.
This is a mosaic floor with motives popular in the Jewish art of the Herodian period. I can't believe it's lasted this long - thankfully it's blocked off so people can't walk on it.
I feel like I've shown a couple of pictures in different ways, but you can really see here the way they were able to capture the water as it flowed down from the mountains. Also, in the middle near the bottom center, you can see a part of the battering ram ramp that the Romans built when they invaded Masada in 73-74 AD. The ramp took many months to build and was built on a natural slope with rocks and earth reinforced with wood.
I think the thing that Ami was MOST excited to show us were the Roman steam baths. The Roman bathhouses were not just for cleansing, but also for the soldiers - and King Herod's social time. They were quite opulent with tile floors and walled frescoes.
This used to be a toilet at the baths of Masada. I don't know why I thought this was so funny, but I have a very real fear of going to the bathroom anywhere other than my house so it gave me great anxiety to see this! This sat in the corner of the exercise area which was situated in front of the baths.
The caldarium was a hot steam bath where Herod and his soldiers were able to clean up and relax. In front of the baths was a yard area where people could exercise (see photo above this one.) From there, you could walk into this room and undress. They aren't super sure what this room was, although there's some speculation that this was maybe a pool for the kiddos? It was likely a room to undress and prepare for your sauna.
In our next edition of "Todd doesn't fit anywhere," we head to Israel, where Todd demonstrates that he does not fit into 1st century fortresses! This little room was a connecting room between the actual sauna and a stairway down to a cold bath. If you get too hot in the sauna, you could cool off in the cold spa that was behind me.
Next they would enter the baths, or a caldarium that had a heating system under the floor, as well as a method to heat the room through vented bricks that lined the walls (as you can see on the right.) Hot water was sent through and it created a sauna type atmosphere. Ami mentioned quite frequently that certain spices (ahem... drugs, but he wouldn't call them that because he didn't want to talk about drugs in front of my kids.) He mentioned this many times, which was clearly his favorite thing to talk about!
I don't have a picture of it, but what you can't see is the arched ceiling. Why? Because the steam was really hot (obviously) and if there had been a flat ceiling, it would have dripped down on the people sitting around beneath it. With an arched ceiling, the water droplets that formed on the rounded ceiling flowed back down the arch and down the wall, avoiding hitting people below.
When we left the sauna, we walked by the outside where the hot water was heated and poured in to flow under the floor (and then into the ceramic tile walls) to create the steam. This picture is just the other side of the wall of the picture above it.
There was a really neat display that showed how they were able to capture the water that flowed down from the Wadi, and then were able to channel it through aqueducts into the cisterns. There's a little fountain of water that you can capture (far right) and then pour at the top as Ami is showing us in this picture, which really gives a great visual.
The room above was known as the Casemate of the Scrolls. As the historic marker sign outside of it said, "A large and rare concentration of finds form the time of the revolt was found in a corner of the room of the wall in which we stand: inscribed sheets of papyrus, fragments of scrolls, silver shekel coins, textiles, sandals and glass vessels and bone implements. Among the finds was a pay record of a Roman cavalryman in the Tenth Legion."
On the west side of Masada, you can see another Roman encampment in the giant square, just right of center. The beginning of the ramp that they led the battering ram up is on the far left.
I just liked this black bird, hanging out on top of Masada.
The ramp that was built by the Romans for their battering ram was built so that the Romans could knock down the Western Gate and storm the fortress.
This is just one example of the cisterns that were built into Masada. Herod's gang would mine the stone to build the fortress and they made a cistern of the empty remnants of the mine. The placard says, "Herod quarried numerous cisterns on the summit and the northwestern slope. Rainwater that flowed in the floods in the nearby streamed was stored here. T he water was collected by a system of dams and two aqueducts, parts of which can be seen to this day. Two rows of cistern were dug in the slope, eight in the upper row and four in the lower, that contained a total of 40,000 cubic meters of water. From the cisterns, two paths led up the mountain, one from the upper row to the Water Gate in the northwest of the mountain, and the other from the lower row to the Snack Path Gate in the east. Convoys of animals brought water up tot Masada along these paths. When they reached the summit, the water was poured into a system of channels leading into the cisterns throughout the mountain."
We continued on, following Ami past the Colambarium Tower, which was used as a Dovecote. Inside, the doves were raised for either fertilizer (ahem, their feces) and sometimes for food.
Funny that in the same spot they used to keep small birds, there is a little gathering of small birds, 2000 years later!
The placard outside of the Breaching Point read, "Here the siege of Masada ended. The ramp that the Romans had built up to the summit of the mountain reached to below this point. At the top of the ramp rose the siege tower, and it was the battering ram with which the Romans assaulted the casemate wall. However, the rebels had built a wall of earth and wood, against which the battering ram was ineffective." Unfortunately, the belief is that when the Roman's entered Masada after taking down the casemate wall, they were met with silence as the roughly 960 Sicarii took their own lives before the Roman's could get to them. I mentioned this before but there is some doubt to this story.
He seems so little in that big room at Masada! He loves pigeons and doves, so he really loved the Dovecote. I always joke that he's like Bert from Sesame Street!
The last stop we made at the fortress was the west bath house (known as a mikvah, or mikveh as I've seen it spelled both ways) at the Western Palace. This was used for Jewish spiritual rituals and purity.
Alas, it was time to head back down the cable car. It had been warm up at the top of Masada, but it was November so we could manage. I really can't imagine hot how it would be up there in the middle of the summer!
Please, try not to look TOO excited to be at one of Herod the Great's amazing palaces. Good or bad, this is history!
One last selfie at Masada with the dry lands and the Dead Sea way behind us. This was after they had eaten, so perhaps they were just hungry in that last picture!
We went down to the restaurant at the base of Masada which hit the spot before we were going to take off for the Dead Sea. Our lunch time views were of the cable car - which interestingly is sitting at 257 meters below sea level where we are in this picture and it goes all the way up to 33 meters above sea level. WAY up there is only 100 feet above sea level. And it takes 3 minutes to get to the top at a whopping 29 km/hour!
One of the wildest things about the Dead Sea is the white crust that surrounds it. It's just a salty crust, like the entire Dead Sea is just a big old margarita!
YES YOU KNOW I LOVE THIS SUPERLATIVE!
I kind of forgot it was Black Friday until I saw this. Oh right! Get your mini soaps for only $3 USD!
I'm at minus 413 meters, let's go have a drink at the lowest bar on earth! (Ok, later because we have to get into the Dead Sea at this point!)
You seriously cannot prepare for the insanity of floating in the Dead Sea. They even have safety instructions to help guide you. And true story - that mud is slippery!
Here I am! I've seen a lot of superlatives in my day but this one. THIS ONE. This one is definitely my fave.
I had heard that swimming in the Dead Sea was weird. Everyone I knew who had gone there had a tough time trying to describe it. It wasn't too crowded when we got there. I'm going to assume this was because it was nearly dusk on a Friday in November! A few minutes before sunset on a Friday is when Shabbat starts, so that might have had something to do with it!
The Dead Sea mud is known for being rich in minerals and good for the skin.
I like the crusty sand, covered in white salt. Ignore my unpainted toenails. I'm not entirely sure my shoes or my clothes (or the backpacks we brought) ever recovered from our trip to the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea water, with its high salinity, feels VERY oily. Even if you wipe it off, everything still feels greasy.
Because I had my good camera in my bag and I didn't want anyone to steal it, I stayed up on shore. I also did so to document Todd and the kids first adventure into the Dead Sea. It was a little chilly, but in the end, I got in, so you know it couldn't have been too cold. Also... do NOT ever pass up an opportunity to float in the Dead Sea if you can!
I love Natalie's face right after she fell backwards into the Dead Sea. That's kind of how you have to do it. And you have to lay on your back.
If you notice Natalie here, the water has literally moved her feet over. The water just takes you and lifts body parts up to the surface that aren't already there. And once you lose control, you're done for. Also, you can go cover yourself in the therapeutic mud and then cleanse yourself in the water, like this guy on the right has done.
NONE of them are sitting on the ground. With a super high salinity of over 34%, the Dead Sea just makes their legs and torso float.
Like I said, if you get in the wrong position, you wind up here like Grant. Somehow the water turned him around and he started flailing about, managing to get water in his eye. You DO NOT want to get Dead Sea water in your eye. Like you might as well go ahead and pour table salt right in there.
Finally, Todd got out so that I could get in, and I'm NOT making this up. My legs are JUST floating like this. It really is the strangest feeling. If you try to push them back down to the ground below you, you just can't.
The kids (and Todd) decided to jump into the mud that lines the shore of the Dead Sea at Kalia Beach.
Gross. Actually you're not gross at all, buddy. I'm proud of you for doing this.
Natalie wanted no part of that in her hair, so she pretty much stopped at the waist. And I don't blame her at all for that! Such a smart and sassy girl.
Todd actually SAT in one of the mud pools on the beach. His skin has never been more beautiful. Ok, I kid, but the three of them were really covered in it. The showers they took after we got out went on and on and on... it's really hard to get all of the mud and oily water off of them.
Oh, okay! Danger! Mines! You really can't (or maybe you can) imagine the number of people that went over the wire (that's at my knees here) and crossed into this area to take a picture. Face. Palm. This is how the world ends, right here. The sheer stupidity of mankind.
It's definitely advised to take a shower on the beach before you go to the actual showers in the locker room up the hill. It took many days to get the yuck out of those bathing suits. We put the suits, shoes, backpacks and pretty much anything we had with us at the beach into the washing machine in our apartment in Tel Aviv and we STILL had to wash it all back in Germany!
Taking one last look at the Dead Sea, knowing I'll probably never get here again. Israel has been one of the top 3 destinations I've been to in my years living in Germany. I feel so fortunate to have been here twice. I hope Todd and I can get back here, and I hope the kids have incredible memories from this trip.
So everyone had to go and shower - which is never easy with kids. We're on the cusp of that being super easy ("just go in and take a shower, here's your towel!") But we aren't quite there yet - especially in Israel where no one cares about being naked, but my very American children still have a BIG issue with that. So it always takes longer than expected, and we gave ourselves a solid half hour. When we got dressed and out of the locker rooms, people were giving the 10 minute warning about the bus leaving. I. AM. NOT. LEAVING. THIS. PLACE. WITHOUT. THIS. SUPERLATIVE. And Todd knew I would never forgive myself for NOT getting a drink at the lowest bar in the world. Quick! Grab a drink! And a photo! Take a sip! LET'S GO!
As we raced back to the bus, I snapped this picture, super quick. I don't know what I love about it. The beautiful sky, the cute pomegranate sign, the palm trees, the lighting... but I made myself stop for just a few seconds to enjoy it.
Until next time, Masada and the fabulous Dead Sea. I hope to see you again!
