Sunday, May 27, 2012

Dead Sea


 The largest industry is the export of dead sea products


It is a problem that the water levels have been going down


we floated in the Dead Sea again
this time with our group, it was fun


I took some dead sea water home with me


Down the snake path



We filled up our camel packs with fresh cold water

 Lori looks still good here, later she made a tumble


everyone gathers around



Let's go down

looking up we see the platform where you choose
snake-path or cable car




 In the beginning there is a fence


"passing" the cable car
see another Roman camp in the background

 Mike & Colleen

 This was a tough place for Rome to fight
 Almost down passing the siege wall


It's around all of Masada
more to impress the Zealots
To tell them, we are here to stay!

 "Faith" has a church picture taken, this time with Todd

 we did it


we walked up and down Masada


loved it!


Masada




Driving up we began to see road signs for Masada
I couldn't believe we would be going there after such a full day
but we got close enough for our first peak


The dead sea is in the background
There is a low line with some black squares on the left
those squares are cisterns, brilliantly engineered by Herod the Great
 to catch the flood waters at the time when the wadi would run high

 walking up to Masada


at the back side where the siege-ramp is


Herod called himself "the Great" because he wanted to be remembered
He build 9 mayor building projects
Masada is 21 acres, the second biggest palace was in Rome, 9 acres


The names with the boxes around them are the people murdered by Herod
He killed one of his sons by chaining him to an iron chair above a fire, lowering him between diner courses.
He did the same idea with his (favourite) wife Mariamne 
He put a chocking collar on her and tightened it between diner courses

strange that people have trouble believing that he killed 
little babies in Bethlehem, it seems to fit the pattern


 We hiked to the lower cisterns


there are 14 of them




Then we hiked in a fast pace to the top coming through the double wall
Herod didn't need to make a double wall but
He wanted to be remembered

 Taking pictures on top of Masada

 This was the first time this Israel trip 
that I was somewhere were I'd been before
but the first time we came by cable car and only saw a little bit


This time we hiked, looking down where we came from

also visible are the Roman camps, they are from the time of the Zealots
around 70AD the Romans came to destroy them
The Zealots (pharisees with knifes) took control of Masada
after Herod's death

Margaret & Jo

We hiked down stairs with very big steps

We were now in one of the water cisterns on top of Masada
water was brought here from the lower cisterns to be available

looking at the waterline left on the plaster, this cistern has been full

Colleen & grace

 I tried hard to avoid looking at any of the signs
so coming into this rectangle deep pit, I had no idea what it was


It was a swimming pool
we found that building swimming-pools
 is a building signature from Herod the Great
He apparently liked building them even though he couldn't swim
this is desert! with a fresh water swimming pool
no wonder he needed these big cisterns

 just to "help" people no to look at the signs 
Todd asked Moria & Marc to sit on this one
there were actually people (from our group) 
that asked them to move so they'd be able to read the sign

they smiled and didn't move, then they got it
 inside was this

 looks like a synagogue, made by the Zealots


Jesus said: do not sit in the chief seats

Within the hearing of all the people, Yeshua said to his talmidim “Watch out for the kind of Torah-teachers that like to walk around in robes and be greeted deferentially in the marketplaces, the kind that like to have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets
 “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, don’t sit down in the best seat

 We hiked down

 to see the leftovers

 from the lower hanging palace

 They'd made some colourful panels


this is original plaster in colour 2000 years old amazing quality

 cool bird
John got in trouble with Todd
He was playing with the birds instead of paying attention


view from the top to the middle palace
must have been so beautiful

 more original plaster

 store houses on top

some records say there was enough stored here for 
10.000 soldiers for 10 years

this was one of Herod's escape fortresses