On Wednesday, March 18, we started our trek to Masada.
I had been startled by the greenness of Jerusalem, but this day our scenery (as seen through our bus window) turned from lush green to desert brown.
THIS is the way I had always imagined Jerusalem to look.
We are headed to the western edge of the Judean desert.
Our destination is Masada.
Masada is an astonishing bit of archaeological history. It's a city on a hill, or more accurately, a mesa. The eastern side rises almost 1500 feet above the Dead Sea, and the western side is 330 feet above the surrounding terrain. Anciently, getting up the mesa and into the city would have been a challenge.
Fortunately, we aren't ancients. We can take the tram.
There is a modern trail leading up to the top, but the day was hot and the time was short.
Masada means fortress and Hebrew, Herod is credited with building Masada as a personal get away between 37 and 31 BC.
It really did feel like the top of the world.
A Jewish group came into possession of the place around 66 AD. Herod had died at that point, and Roman soldiers were guarding the place. The year 66 AD was a time of general revolt of Jews vs. Romans, and Masada was conquered. When Jerusalem feel in 72 AD, other Jews joined the community as they escaped from the destruction.
There's the Dead Sea. Not the view I would have picked for MY city, but...
By 73 AD, the Romans wanted their city back.
It kind of amazes me that we are visiting places with histories that must by clarified using "BC" and "AD".
The Romans battered the city for 2-3 months, but finally had to get a battering ram before they could breach the walls of the city's fortress.
When Jews in the city of Masada realized they were going to lose, they concocted a plan to commit mass suicide rather than being taken prisoner by the hated Romans.
The men cast lots to chose ten men to slay everyone and then themselves. In the mid 1960's archeologists found 10 pieces of pottery, each with a name on it, giving credence to the story.
The story (written by Josephus Flavius, Romano-Jewish scholar and historian) says that 960 Masadains were killed, and 2 women and 5 children survived by hiding in a cistern.
This city complex had many storage rooms like this, organized by their content. They were used for food and water storage, as well as weapon and raw materials to make more weapons.
Masada had the advantage of having a bird's eye view of miles and miles in every direction, making a sneak attack impossible.
Given the large expanse of desert in every direction, it must have taken a lot of planning to provide and store food and water for citizens. The nearby Dead Sea would have been a useless source for either.
Josephus says that the Roman invaders beat on the walls and were unsuccessful for some time. After two or three months, a battering ram was brought in and finally finished the job.
Imagine being here in this city, being under attack for months, knowing you could not escape what was coming.
This is a model of Herod's temple, with three levels. I'm not sure how Herod got from one level to the other--I don't think the tram was running yet.
This is what's left of the temple.
There are ruins of synagogues and temples from the various inhabitants.
There are a number of archeologists who think Josephus's account of the conquering of Masada is an exaggeration.
Only a few dozen bodies were discovered, making it hard for many to believe the mass suicide story.
Imagine the man hours involved in building a city like this.
Masada's dovecots, used to house doves for sacrifice and for food and fertilizer. There are three of these in the city.
This is the ramp where the battering ram was used, the point of the breach. Imagine the Roman's breaking through, only to find nothing--the people of Masada destroyed all of their food supplies and weapons before the mass suicide.
The scenery is a little montone at Masada, but it still has it's own kind of beauty.
There was a museum at the base, which we didn't have time to explore.
I'm not sure who is posting the museum sign--perhaps Elazar ben Yair, leader of Masada?
I do love a good museum.
I wish we could have spent time here.
On our way to our next stop, we passed an out of the way gas station/tourist-y shop and stopped. Imagine finding gelato at this stop,
and imagine that it was by far the best gelato I had on this trip. Crazy!
I'm beginning to thing we just aren't going to see the gorgeous green of Jerusalem again.
After going through SEVERAL checkpoints, we arrived in Taba, Egypt.
It became immediately clear we were in a country experiencing serious poverty. We passed some pretty sad communities on our way to our hotel.
We also passed by this hotel? shopping center? dude ranch?
As we pulled into our hotel, guards came running out with a mirror on a stick to check the underside of our buses for bombs. Now that inspires confidence!
Our hotel, out in the middle of nowhere, was beautiful.
Since Stan and I generally stay in a Motel 6 (and we'd chose a Motel 4 if it were available), we're pretty impressed by our upscale lodgings.
Yep, we could get used to this!
After our incredible, amazing experiences in Israel, I knew the best part of our journey was over. It would all be marking time until we flew home now.
Yeah,,,,not even!
Yeah,,,,not even!
Masada was an incredible place. It's hard to imagine how the place was built. When I was reading the gelato report towards the end, at first I thought you wrote "we passed out at a gelato station." That would've been pretty accurate.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you both passed in to the gelato station, but did you ever pass out of them - I'm not sure? Masada was another place (like most we visited) I would like to have spent much more time. So much to see and so little time to see it.
ReplyDelete