Because of my rambling incoherent rant yesterday I whiffed on telling everyone about my day. Let's recap shall we?
Yesterday was one of my favorite days here! It was really amazing! We traveled, or erm, pilgrimed (?) our way to the Dead Sea, Masada, and Qumran. This is quite convenient since Qumran and Masada are right on top of the Dead Sea. After seeing thousands of pictures of the caves of Qumran with no real corresponding information on how close Qumran is to the Dead Sea, I figured that it was out in the middle of the Judean Desert. And, it is; however, it's also right beside the Dead Sea. I'm sure the Essenes went for a swim or two just to cool off. Or maybe they didn't, because they are about a dozen or so ritual bathing pools at Qumran. Those dudes definitely did not like body odor! And judging from the immense heat there, they needed 5 baths a day to wash off the sweat. I'm certain that they built that place on top of the sun!
When we reached Masada, it was 112 degrees F! It was only 108 at the Dead Sea, so there must have been a cold front move through. I mean, we got to the Dead Sea after Masada and I thought that it must have been a cold front sweeping down from the North or something. Folks, just take my word for it, IT WAS HOT!!!
Masada was simply unbelievable! For those of you who don't know, it's a fortress built on top of a mountain with a plateau on the top. It's sort of like one of those weird looking mountains you'd see in Arizona. The top is flat and there's cliffs around the entire mountain. Build a fortress on top and what do you have? An impenetrable fortress. Minus the Romans building a ramp to the top, smashing down the wall with a giant battering ram, which was set on top of a giant tower covered in iron. Other than that, impenetrable.
The place doesn't look that big until you walk around on top of it and realize just how enormous it really is. King Herod the Great build a casemate (that's a double wall) around the entire perimeter of the mountain. He also had a three tiered castle built on the North face of the mountain. There were apartments, storerooms, and of course, a large Western palace. Oh, and don't forget the swimming pool. That's right, there were swimming pools! Hey, when it's 112 degrees and you're in the middle of a desert, what better way to beat the heat? And by the way, I now you're wondering how they got the water. Herod built an elaborate set of dams and channels which channeled the water during the rainy season (it does rain here, just not often) into enormous cisterns he dug all over the mountain.
The Dead Sea was spectacular! I was amazed at how ginormous it is! When you get in the water, because of the incredible high content of salt and minerals dissolved in the water, your body becomes buoyant and you float! Force your legs down and let your body relax and it automatically pushes you to the top of the water. It's a crazy feeling! The salt is built up on the edges of the shoreline and it forms humongous salt deposits that are very cool looking!
Qumran - as we say in the Southern US, it ain't nothin to write home to yo mama about. It's very small and there's not much there. You can, however, see the caves where the Essenes placed their sacred scrolls, which we found nearly 2000 years later. Speaking of the Dead Sea Scrolls, I saw them today! Very cool! They have them very protected, of course, but you can walk around and look at some of the ones they found. I've heard about the Dead Sea Scrolls all my life, and to see them was spectacular! Quite a lifetime event for me.
Today we walked down to the Western Wall, or the Wailing Wall, which is the Western Wall of the 2nd Temple in Jerusalem. At this part of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, devout Jews, Christians, and Muslims come to pray. It is mostly, however, Jews and Orthodox Jews at that; meaning, these are the Jews that have the prayer boxes on their heads, the leather straps on their arms, the prayer shawls around their heads and shoulders, and are of course reading the scriptures while bending or rocking back and forth. Some people will write prayers and stick them into the wall in hopes that they will be answered. Quite an amazing place! I wore a yamaka today for the first time ever, mainly out of respect.
Here are some pictures to whet your willy (does anyone know where that phrase came from?!)
This is at the foot of Masada. You can see the flat top and the cliffs that surround the entire mountain. Impenetrable. Minus the Romans.
This is a model of the Northern face of Masada. You can see Herod's three tiered palace and how they built it straight into the rock of the mountain. And trust me, that's a loooooooong fall from that high! Those engineers must have thought Herod was crazy.
Just so you get a sense of how high up Masada is, these are the stairs which lead down to the 2nd and 3rd levels of the Northern Palace. Not for the faint of heart!
The reward for walking down to the 3rd level! Awesome! Since it's rather scary to get to, most people don't walk down here, so we had the place all to ourselves for about 15 minutes.
A close-up view of the back wall of the 3rd level of the palace. That's the original paint from 2000 years ago.
The mosaic floor from the throne room of the Western palace on Masada.
I'm looking over the casemate wall directly down onto the earthen ramp built by the Romans in order to lay siege to Masada. As you can see, this is a very large ramp and probably took months to build. Patience and persistence pay off kids.
Just so you get a sense of what it looks like from Masada and Qumran, this is the Judean Desert. It just goes for miles and miles and miles with nothing but dirt, sand, and the mountains. Why would anyone want to live out here?!
The salt deposits that build up on the edge of the Dead Sea. These salt deposits are about 6 inches deep too.
Look ma, no hands! This requires no effort, you just float whether you want to or not. The water contains 27% salt/minerals.
This is probably the most famous of the Dead Sea caves, Cave 4 where the first Dead Sea Scrolls were found. So you have an idea of the surroundings - I'm standing in Qumran, the community where the Essenes lived. I'm facing toward the West toward Jerusalem. This cave is directly across from Qumran, about 100 feet. Directly behind me is the Dead Sea.
This picture should give you an idea of the landscape. I'm facing directly South, looking toward Masada. The Dead Sea is the lowest place on Earth, about 1300 feet below Sea level. The tops of those mountains on the right are actually below Sea level too! I'm standing in Qumran. The Dead Sea is directly to my left and the caves are to my right. If you look near the top right of the picture, you can sort of see some more of the caves on the cliffs. Whose job was it to climb up there and hide scrolls?!
No comments:
Post a Comment