Masada and Dead Sea
21.09.2019 - 21.09.2019
35 °C
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2019 Excellent Adventure
on JimShirl's travel map.
Started the day’s tour with Masada, the desert fortress where the Jewish rebels of 70 AD held out against the Romans until all was lost and they killed their families and themselves rather than become slaves or worse.
It is on top of a mesa where Herod the Great has built a winter palace about 90 years earlier.
Then we went to lunch at Qumran, where the Dead Sea scrolls were found in 1947. This is the only place to eat for miles along the Dead Sea and dozens of tour buses were there. “Crowded” does not begin to describe it.
On to the Dead Sea itself to take a dip. It is 10 times saltier than the Mediterranean and shrinking rapidly due to the water of Galilee and the Jordan being used more and more. The water is very warm, the lake bed is mud and slippery. But you really do bob like a cork in it. Some people smeared the mud all over themselves as it is supposed to have therapeutic properties.
When we got back to Jerusalem, we rested a bit then went out to dinner and a sound and light show in the Tower of David about the history of Jerusalem.
