Dead Sea

Katie remarked when she first saw it that she was surprised the Dead Sea is so beautiful. One might expect, given the name, that this lowest point on earth is a brown-ish, black-ish, putrid mud hole. But, in reality, it is quite the opposite. The extremely high salt and mineral concentration in the water makes it impossible for anything to live there, so the waters are simply clear and empty, and perfectly blue under the desert sky. Also, as is well known, the water is so dense that people float right to the top. Here's what happens when a dancer discovers the Dead Sea:

And, of course, the Dead Sea experience would not be complete without a good all-over mud treatment. The mud from the sea is also dense with minerals that are supposed to be great for the skin:

 Let's just say it was a really good shower that evening.

Masada

Katie and I spent days 5 and 6 of her visit in the Judean desert. We climbed Masada, bathed in the Dead Sea, explored Qumran, and hiked Ein Gedi.

Masada is a desert fortress on an unusually flat-topped, 1300 foot rocky plateau overlooking the Dead Sea. Herod embellished it with a three-tiered palace on the north face and lavish bath houses. Most of what we know about Masada's history comes from 1st century historian Josephus. It was on Masada that the extremist Jewish rebels took their last stand against Rome in the Jewish war (begun 66 CE). After the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed in 70, the remaining rebels retreated to Masada. The Romans followed them, encamped below the fortress, and began to build first a ramp up to the top, and then a siege tower to attack the outer battlements with a battering ram. When the rebels realized theirs was a lost cause, they set fire to the buildings and took their lives. Much of the archaeology on Masada substantiates Josephus' story. We saw the outlines of the Roman camp, the ramp they built, and the place where they breached the walls.

Masada was occupied at least once after its defeat at the hands of the Romans. In the 5th-7th centuries, Christian monks moved in a built a Byzantine-style church there.

View of the wadi between Masada (R) and the next hill over:

Huzzah! We hiked up the snake path!

View of the Dead Sea from the top of Masada:

 Model of the buildings on top of Masada:

 People were shorter back then...

View of the hot room in one of Masada's bath houses. You can see some of the pillars that held up the floor and clay pipes embedded in the walls. A furnace heated hot air which was funneled through these to create a Roman sauna.

Some reconstructed fresco painting in Herod's hanging palace on the north face of the mesa:

An ancient dovecote.

Model of the water cisterns at Masada. Water is a serious matter in a desert fortress. It is a little difficult to see in this picture, but there were cisterns built into the cliffside. This region is subject to flash flooding, and these cisterns perfectly positioned to fill up in the case of a flash flood. Then, the water was most likely carried to the top by mules, where it was deposited into more cisterns for daily use. You can pour water on the model and watch the cisterns fill.

One of Masada's preserved mosaic floors:

Bet She'an

Bet She'an is a city that was inhabited for thousands of years, including several hundred years by Canaanites, Egyptians, Romans, Byzantine Romans, and Muslims. For many centuries, it was a lavish Roman-style city with theater, markets, multiple bathhouses, and an acropolis...until an earthquake in 749 CE put an end to its habitation. It has now been excavated in such a way that you can walk through and, with a little imagination, see the entire city.

Before we could get there, though, our bus had to pause to let some sheep cross the highway:

Overview of the ruins, with the Bet She'an tel in the background:

 We saw some great mosaics, including this one:

Explanation of how Roman bathhouses work (there were 2 large ones in this not-so-large city):

And a picture of the bathhouse. Note the piles of stones that lift up the floor. A fire heats the air under the floor.

 

Katie, raising a glass in the ruins of a temple:

Hugging one of the fallen columns:

Chilling in the doorway of a reconstructed store facade:

Piecing together a mosaic:

Reconstruction of one of the busy street corners:

View from the top of the tel:

Looking another direction, you can see the Jordan valley and into the Jordanian hills:

Hanging out in one of the structures at the top of the tel. This was the Egyptian governor's house in the 12th century BCE:

Katie taking a picture of an old tree at the top of the tel. In the background, the lower Galilee:

View of a nearby bridge:

Last but not least, a bridal couple, taking a classy picture of the bride, as seen through the legs of the groom:

Monastery of the Cross and Israel Museum

The Monastery of the Cross is an 11th century building still being used today by monks (see a previous blog post from when I visited with Annie for more info on the history of the building). Here are some pictures from the outside (one from the south and one from the north):

And inside (for the next three, imagine you are looking up at the ceiling first and then your gaze sweeps downward):

Baking bread:

After the Monastery of the Cross, we went to the Israel Museum where we saw four exhibits:

1. A new and temporary exhibit entitled "Herod the Great: The King's Final Journey," about the excavation of Herodium and Herod's tomb.

2. A large model of 1st century Jerusalem.

3. The Shrine of the Book, an exhibit about the Dead Sea Scrolls.

4. The archaeology wing of the museum, featuring artifacts as old as 6th millenium BCE (Katie liked the fish hooks).

Looking bored while standing in line to enter the Herod exhibit.

Last picture we took indoors before we were asked to put cameras away:

Godzilla marauding in 1st century Jerusalem:

 Posing with the Ahava/Love sculpture in the sculpture garden:

Chicago has the bean, Jerusalem has the apple core: