The Judean Wilderness and the Dead Sea

Saturday was a very long day. We traveled through the Judean Wilderness to the Dead Sea. En route, we passed many Bedouin nomads, some herding sheep and goats as they have for thousands of years. I was amazed how desolate the Judean wilderness is. It begins so abruptly on the back side of the Mount of Olives - I can see why some believe that that mount divides heaven from hell.

Our first stop was Masada. Masada is an old Roman fort built by - you guessed it - Herod the Great (he did a lot of building during his time). It's situated on top of a very high mountain and is very difficult to access. For thousands of years, historians knew of Masada but no one knew where it was. Finally, sometime during the 1800's it was rediscovered. There's now a cable car that will take you to the top to explore the ruins.

Masada is most famous for what happened in about 70 A.D. The Jews had rebelled against the Romans and the Romans had responded fiercely to the revolt. This is when the temple was destroyed for the last time. A few Jewish "zealots" managed to take control of Masada from the Romans. For several years they stayed atop Masada - unable to leave because the Romans had surrounded the mountain. Fortunately for the Jews, there were years worth of provisions there.

Because the fort was so high and so inaccessible, it took the Romans years to find a way to reach the zealots. In the end they actually built a ramp all the way to the top of the mountain. The ramp remains today (though slightly eroded). It's amazing that they built it with literally millions of individual stones.

The night they finally reached the top and were ready to enter the fort to capture the zealots, the zealots held a meeting and decided they would commit mass suicide rather than be captured by the Romans. When the Romans entered the fort, they found everyone dead except two women and five children.

After we left Masada, we went to the dead sea. Here we got to swim and take a dead sea mud bath and soak in the a sulfur hot springs. It was very nice. Here's a picture of the mud monster.

We also made a few other stops in the desert (including Qumran where the Dead Sea scrolls were found) and then made out way back to Tel Aviv to catch our flight home.

It was a really great trip altogether. I found myself wishing I could have spent much more time there as a tourist. I felt like I barely scratched the surface and that there is so much more there to see and experience. I did "feel" a lot there - much more than I expected. Knowing the scriptures a little bit and then seeing the place really helped to solidify in my mind many of the teachings and stories from the scriptures. I highly recommend anyone that is able to take the time to travel there - it is very much worth the experience!