Masada

Masada was probably used as a defensive lookout post as far back as the days of Solomon.  Pottery has been found going that far back.  The route we are taking is probably the way the Queen of Sheba would have taken form Ethiopia to visit Solomon.

There is a 65-mile canal under construction running along the road between us and the Dead Sea.  It's purpose is eventually to replenish the Dead Sea.  They have made plans for parks and recreation centers along its length.  Those are underway now, even though it may take another 20-30 years to complete the project.

I am climbing Masada.  Ken and Jonathan have set too fast a pace, and are ahead of me.  I am about half way up.  It's a good thing this is a cool day, because I'm sweating and out of breath.  Looking down at what appear to be badlands below.  Everyone else has taken the cable car.  I woke up constantly all night last night.  I should sleep really well tonight.

This is a tough climb, about like the steepest parts of Timpanogos, except that it's that steep all the way.  I'm about 3/4 of the way up  now.  As I play this back I can hear myself panting for breath.  I am very glad that I don't feel the shin splint today, although it was still giving me some trouble yesterday.

We're at the top now.  I was slower than the others getting up, but I made it.  The climb was about like when I climbed half way up the north face of the Grand Canyon last year.  I'm very glad that I did it.

Ken got up here in about half the time I did, but he is much more tired than I.  Not normal.  Ken's more used to this sort of thing than I am, and of course, Jonathan has a 40 year advantage on both of us.  I think Ken may have caught a bug last night.  He's just laid down to take a nap.  

We have seen the commandant's residence and are now coming to the main square.

Herod's palace was built at the north end of the mountain, where it would be cool in the shade of the afternoon in the summertime.

We are now going into a complex of storerooms.  It is obvious that this was not just a thrown together temporary facility, but a complex city.

We are now climbing up to the palace.  The palace is tri-level, built in a stair step arrangement on the end of the mountain.

I am standing in the doorway of a Jewish bath house, looking back at a smaller bath area, a mikveh for ceremonial cleansing.  A mikveh requires at least 30% running water.  I thought I heard David say that Masada comprises about 50,000 acres, although it looks less than that to me.

We are told there are many cisterns here to provide both potable water and water for the mikvehs.  One holds 200 million gallons.

It is possible that the people at Masada could see the temple going up in flames.  It's about 60 miles away.

Even though the weather has changed, it is still pretty warm here.

We are hurrying now.  We have 10 minutes to get back to catch the cable car down the mountain.  I really don't want to walk back down.

Last night in our hotel room we heard the sound of jets several times going over--fighter jets.  Right now, there are helicopters going over.

Our guide has told us the story of Masada and the suicides, the casting of lots, etc.  It seems quite a different story when you are up on top with no way off the mountain.  We saw some shards with the names of individuals, which were used in drawing the lots.

En Gedi

The desert we are driving through now looks to me a lot like the Arizona desert.  It's a lot of broken shale.  Over to the side I see several of the striped dunes--parfait--like the ones down on the Navajo reservation.  We do have some vegetation here--there's no sagebrush, of course, but there are some bushes which seem to be the Israeli equivalent.  It's very bleak.  Much of it is very white on one side of the road.  I think that has to do with the salt in the area.  The rest is a light color of brown and is just very bleak.  You have to wonder why anyone would fight over land like this.  This is all David's country through here.

The name En-Gedi comes form the mountain goats.  "En" is a spring and "Gedi" is the ibex.  En-Gedi is the Spring of the ibex.

There is a Canaanite temple which we cannot see on the mountain above us.  It has models of ibex in it.

We are stopping on the way to En-gedi to see an ancient synagogue.

In the middle of the desert--there is abundant water here coming from springs.

We are at En-Gedi, beginning a hike to a waterfall--it will take about 40 minutes to get there.  When we reach the spring, it is about 3' wide.

The trail is now beginning to be a fairly difficult climb--nowhere as near as bad as Masada.  I probably wouldn't feel this very much if I hadn't gone up the other one first.

The waterfall has several levels.  We have climbed above the first level and are about to go through dense thatch to the next.

We are at the upper falls now.  There is a very large cave above here back into the hills a ways, that may very well be where David and Saul met.

Qumran

We have just passed a Palestinian check point.  The fence here is not electrified, but it will be a little further on.  Across the Dead Sea from here is where Moses stood to see the land he could not enter.

We have just passed a rock, well above us, where the level of the Dead Sea was marked in 1913.  The water level has gone down ever since.  This is why there is a project to replenish the lake.

There is a spring here--a sulphur spring--and a beach.  Arabs used to come here from Jericho.

We have traveled to Qumran.  There is a camel in the parking lot.

Jerusalem

We are climbing fast.  It's still very much desert, but we are seeing some pretty high hills now around us.  This is the famous Jericho Road.

We are passing a Roman inn on the right side of the road.  It may be the site where the Good Samaritan left his charge; then again, it may not be.

As we get higher now, we're beginning to see some green.  It's still desert.  We're looking at a hill over to the left of us quite a ways.  That is Bethany.

  From anywhere in Israel one goes up to Jerusalem.  We are about to start climbing much more intensely now.  Suddenly, there are soldiers everywhere, getting into trucks and sitting along the side of the road.  We are climbing steeply now.  There is a mountain village on either side of us.  These hills are steep like the hills of San Francisco.  The houses are right next to the streets.  These are very narrow, crowded streets.

We have come to a place where we are going to get off the bus, and we are going to walk into Jerusalem.  There is a cold wind here.  We are walking on the Mount of Olives.  This looks like any other city urban area.  We have been warned now about pickpockets.  There are street vendors selling posters.

We are passing a large cemetery.  This is a British cemetery from the 1st World War, for the troops.  There are hundreds of headstones here.  It reminds me a little bit of the Punch Bowl in Hawaii.