Israel and Jordan, 2011—Day 8

Today, we are touring the Dead Sea area and the Judean Desert. We entered a tunnel near the Mount of Olives and a few hundred feet later exited the tunnel on the edge of the Judean Desert. The distance from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea is not more than 20 miles and the elevation drops from about 2600 at the Mount of Olives to about 1388 feet below sea level at the surface of the Dead Sea.
Masada. Our first stop of the day was Masada, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Masada is the name for a site of ancient palaces and fortifications in the South District of Israel on top of an isolated rock plateau on the eastern edge of the Judean Desert overlooking the Dead Sea. We arrived at the bottom, and took a fully-loaded cable car to the top of the mountain rather than hike the long and difficult snake path, winding up the side of the mountain. The ruins were amazing. Inside the synagogue, an ostracon bearing the inscription me’aser cohen (tithe for the priest) was found, as were fragments of two scrolls; parts of Deuteronomy 33-34 and parts of Ezekiel 35-38 (including the vision of the “dry bones”), found hidden in pits dug under the floor of a small room built inside the synagogue. In other locations fragments were found of the books of Genesis, Leviticus, Psalms, and Sirach, as well as of the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice. After the First Jewish-Roman War, a siege of the fortress by troops of the Roman Empire led to the mass suicide of the Sicarii rebels. Herod the Great fortified Masada between 37 and 31 BC as a refuge for himself in the event of a revolt. In 66 AD, at the beginning of the First Jewish-Roman War against the Roman Empire, a group of Jewish extremists called the Sicarii overcame the Roman garrison of Masada. After the destruction of the Second Temple, additional members of the Sicarii and their families fled Jerusalem and settled on the mountaintop, using it as a base for harassing the Romans. The Sicarii were an extremist splinter group of the Zealots who were equally antagonistic to both Romans and other Jewish groups. The Zealots, in contrast to the Sicarii, carried the main burden of the rebellion, which opposed Roman rule of Judea. The Sicarii on Masada were joined by additional Sicarii and their families that were expelled from Jerusalem by the Jewish population with whom the Sicarii were in conflict shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple. In 72 AD, the Roman governor of Judea, Lucius Flavius Silva, laid siege to Masada. The Roman legion, with several camps in the area, surrounded Masada and built a circumvallation wall and then a siege embankment, shown in the photograph, against the western face of the plateau, moving thousands of tons of stones and beaten earth to do so. The rampart was complete in the spring of 73 AD, after probably two to three months of siege, allowing the Romans to finally breach the wall of the fortress with a battering ram. When they entered the fortress, however, the Romans discovered that its 960 inhabitants had set all the buildings but the food storerooms ablaze and committed mass suicide.
En Gedi Nature Reserve. Our next stop was the En Gedi Nature Reserve. En Gedi is one of the most important reserves in Israel. The park is situated on the eastern border of the Judean Desert, on the Dead Sea coast. The elevation of the land ranges from the level of the Dead Sea at 423 meters (1,388 ft) below sea level to the plateau of the Judean Desert at 200 meters above sea level. En Gedi Nature Reserve includes two spring-fed streams with flowing water year-round. We were at En Gedi only briefly, long enough for short, one-mile hike to the first water falls, then returning to the bus for our next stop.
Qumran. After departing En Gedi, we drove to Qumran, one of my most anticipated sites. Qumran is an archaeological site in the West Bank. It is located on a dry plateau about a mile inland from the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, near the Israeli settlement and kibbutz of Kalia. The Hellenistic period settlement was constructed during the reign of John Hyrcanus, 134-104 BC or somewhat later, and was occupied most of the time until it was destroyed by the Romans in 68 AD or shortly after. It is best known as the settlement nearest to the caves in which the Dead Sea Scrolls were hidden, caves in the sheer desert cliffs and beneath, in the marl terrace. Since the discovery from 1947 to 1956 of nearly 900 scrolls in various conditions, mostly written on parchment, with others on papyrus, extensive excavations of the settlement have been undertaken. Cisterns, Jewish ritual baths, and cemeteries have been found, along with a dining or assembly room and debris from an upper story alleged by some to have been a scriptorium as well as pottery kilns and a tower.
Dead Sea. About 3 kilometers (2 miles) north of Qumran, we stopped for a swim in the Dead Sea at Kalia
Judean Wilderness and the Jericho Road. Because of its lack of water and good routes, the Judean Wilderness has been mostly uninhabited throughout history. Consequently it was an ideal place for those seeking refuge from enemies or retreat from the world. When on the run from King Saul, David hid in various places in the Judean Wilderness. John the Baptist preached here, and it seems likely that this was the wilderness where Jesus was tempted. Herod the Great built two fortresses in the Judean Wilderness (Herodium and Masada) for protection should his people ever revolt against him. From our vantage point atop a hill, we could see the Jericho Road, Jordan, and the Dead Sea. As was the case at most stops, we were bombarded with adults and children selling souvenirs. In this particular location, most of the sales people were bedouin. Kay bought a desert headdress and some other small things from one of the bedouins.
Here Comes a Cold. For the last few days, I’ve been feeling like a cold was at hand. I began sneezing before we left the US, and was okay for the first couple of days. Then, at Tel Dan Nature Reserve, pollen and cottonwood “balls” infiltrated the air. Today, I’m beginning to feel not so good.