Day 3: Trip to Israel 08

We drove south along the Jordan Valley to the ancient Roman ruins at Bet She'an.

                 Jim & Carol Daniel at Bet She'an in 2009
 

It was the capitol of the Decapolis (ten cities) in ancient times. The ruins were impressive, featuring an amphitheatre, public lavatory (neccessarium!), pillars, walls, and mosaic and marble streets.

Mike Justice 2009

             Dianne Swafford between the ancient pillars in 2009.

                   Mike resting on the fallen columns.

                                  Ancient columns of Bet She'an

Mike looking at the ancient thermal bath construction.

 Main Street (Cardo) of Bet She'an with site of ancient ruins in the background.

The city was overlooked by the more ancient ruins from the days of Saul and Jonathan (where their bodies were hung on the city walls by the Philistines).

                       Ancient Amphitheatre of Beit She'an

                                                      Jordan Valley 

From there we drove about 90 minutes south to Qumran and Masada. The drive featured views of the Jordan Valley occupied by Jordanians on our left, as well as, Palestinian settlements in the West Bank to the right. I saw a herd of camels, a shepherdess, and some Bedouin homesteads. We drove through the desert along the Dead Sea for many miles. It was fascinating.


    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dead_Sea-18.jpg


Mike and others were sleeping but I was leaning forward in my seat to look and soak it all in.


                   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dead_Sea_by_David_Shankbone.jpg

Qumran was the home of the Essenes, an ascetic religious sect who settled in the hot desert near the Dead Sea around the first century BC. They lived a communal life of self denial focused on prayer, study, meditation, poverty, charity and making copies of the scriptures. By 68 A.D. they had been massacred by the Roman legions of Titus sent to crush the Jerusalem revolt. They hid their scriptures in caves around Qumran which weren't discovered for nearly 2000 years.

         Communal living quarters at Qumran.

Steps leading down into one of the seven cisterns used to collect rainwater channelled from the mountains with an aqueduct system.

Qumran Cistern

         Area of the Dead Sea Scroll Caves near Qumran

Dead Sea Scroll in clay jar.

Most scrolls were written on papyrus and leather.

Only two were found that were written on copper. The first was found in 1947 by a Bedouin boy named Mohammed Edib. More than 900 pieces of scroll were found in more than 30 caves.  

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vista_general_de_Masada.jpg

Masada: The Site of Herod's Fortress. 2000 feet above the Dead Sea. Half a mile long and 220 yards wide.

Herod built a palace in 40 B.C.on Masada.

 He built it to protect himself from the Jews in case they deposed him as King.

 Then he enhanced and fortified it to resist a possible attack by Mark Anthony.

It had 18 foot walls, 38 towers (75 ft high), store houses, cisterns, barracks, arsenals, etc.

          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Masada_View_from_West.jpg

Masada was fascinating. We ate lunch in the ground level facilities and then took the cable car to the top.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Israel_Aereal_Ropeway_Masada_BW_1.JPG

 That the fortress was built in a time without mechanical assistance is incredible.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masada

Thermal Baths at Masada

How they got all the materials up there is beyond me. He was called Herod the Great for a reason. The fortress was magnificent and the views glorious.

                                Mike and Cherel at Masada

                      Portions of the walls of Masada

                                Original Bathroom Decor

      Model of Herod's palace and fortress on Masada.

                                  View from Masada

                    Views of the Dead Sea from Masada.

I really enjoyed our visit there. I picked up a rock and a piece of pottery shard as souvenirs. I thought the pottery was 2000 years old but it’s probably from filming the movie Masada in 1981.

Masada is a Jewish Shrine because a group of Jews held the Roman 10 Legion at bay for many months in 72 A.D. When they knew they had lost, they killed themselves rather than give the Romans that satisfaction.

After Masada we stopped at an Ahava Factory (skin care and cosmetics) and then went to the Hot Springs Spa Resort on the Dead Sea. We spent an hour there. Some of the group got in the Hot Springs pool and/or the sea but Mike and I just watched– and I picked up Dead Sea salt and rocks!

                               On the shore of Dead Sea

Our final destination for the day was Jerusalem. How exciting! We drove back up through the desert along the Dead Sea and then passed groves of short Date Palms (engineered by Israelis so they can pick the dates from the ground). And I saw a some harts (miniature deer) in the desert before we reached the Jericho road turnoff toward Jerusalem.

Overlooking Old Jericho in the distance one could barely make out a Monastery built on the The Mount of Temptations. No one knows for sure, but this area is the traditional site for the cave where Jesus fasted for 40 days and the mountain site of the first and third temptations. And the summit of the mountain is supposed to be the site of the 4th temptation.

"Mount of Quarantania"

There were many Bedouin tents on the drive up to Jerusalem.


  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tent

And I was surprised by how desolate the landscape remained up to the very borders of the city.

Schlomo put on the Jerusalem song and it really set the mood for a grand entrance into the City of God. It was dark and the lights were beautiful. We checked into the Dan Panorama with a sense of excitement for the sights to come on the morrow.


Most of my original pictures got wiped out in a computer conversion so some of these are borrowed from free to use websites and some of them were taken by Dianne Swafford on her trip in 2009. Thank you, Dianne!  

Hope you enjoy.