Day 12 – June 16 – Saturday

(Masada, Jericho, Qumran and the Dead Sea)

Masada

The first stop of the day was Masada, a mountain top fortress located in Israel on the western shore of the Dead Sea. All but one member of the group, ascended to the ancient fortress by cable car. Chad Hardcastle, our lone, single young man decided to walk up the path to the top. We waved to Chad as we passed him high above on our way up. I’m sure it sounded like a good idea when he started but he was dragging when he got to the top – it was steep and the weather was warm.

Masada is a mountaintop, complete with ancient ruins, located in the Negev desert near the Dead Sea.

The word Masada means "fortress" in Hebrew. The cliff's remoteness from human habitation and difficult approach made it an ideal location for a fortress. Two fortified palaces were built there in the 1st century BC by the Judean king Herod the Great. After Herod's death, Masada was occupied by a Roman garrison. Jewish zealots captured it in AD 66.

From AD 66-70, Masada became a refuge for Jewish zealots revolting against Roman rule. After the Romans conquered Jerusalem in AD 70, about 1000 men, women, and children escaped to Masada.

At the end of AD 72, the Romans set out to conquer Masada, the last point of Jewish insurrection. The Roman camp consisted of some 10,000-15,000 Roman soldiers and Jewish prisoners. Eight Roman army camps, linked by an earthen wall, were built in a circle around the base of Masada. The Jewish zealots fought the approaching army off with stones. When the Romans finally succeeded to breach the wall at the top of the mountain, the Jewish zealots knew they had lost the fight. All but seven Jews killed themselves rather than surrender to slavery.

During the tour of Masada, among the ruins we saw Herod’s bath house and original frescos from Herod’s time. Have I told you how hot it was on a mountain top in a desert situated in the southern part of Israel? After touring Masada for close to two hours it was time to catch the cable car back down. This time 4 or 5 people decided to walk down the trail. We didn’t have to wait to long for them at the bottom and I’m not sure any of them would have made that walk if they had another chance. Although, it is quite impressive to be able to say that I walked down from Masada. We loaded up with cold drinks and ice cream and headed for Jericho.

Jericho

Commonly known as “the oldest city in the world,” Jericho is an important historical, cultural, and political center located northwest of the Dead Sea. The city is perhaps best known from the Biblical story of a great victory over its Canaanite citizens by the Israelite leader Joshua.

The present city was captured by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967 along with the rest of the West Bank from Jordan. It was one of the first cities handed over to Palestinian Authority control in 1994, in accordance with the Oslo accords. Jericho was re-occupied by Israel during the Al-Aqsa Intifada of 2001. After a period of Israeli control during Operation Defensive Shield, it was returned to the Palestinian Authority on March 16, 2005. Today, Jericho seems like a ghost town – no industry – 60-70% unemployment – and entry into the city is controlled by Israeli forces.

You may wonder what we were doing in Jericho. Well, we were doing lunch. Our guide has taken us into a couple of depressed areas for lunch. I believe he feels it’s his Christian duty to help the down trodden and the people of Jericho are certainly that. Lunch was edible but that’s it. We were able to shop at a store that sold many products manufactured using the healing ‘powers’ of the Dead Sea salt. Shannon bought 7 bottle of Ahava hand lotion (from the Dead Sea Laboratories) for her girlfriends back home. They have all confirmed that it is the best hand lotion they have ever used. It was an odd diversion and the city is simply dirty, dusty and all but dead. After what I thought was an abnormally long stop, we boarded the bus and headed for Qumran.

Qumran

The drive from the hotel in Jerusalem to the Qumran National Park was approximately 40 minutes long. Once outside of Jerusalem, the landscape turns to desert, a few trees and shrubs and the occasional Bedouin community - living in their tents. I imagine the Bedouins have been living this way for thousands of years. The trip to Qumran was uneventful – we were still in the wake up mode. As we entered the Park, the bus driver unloaded us near the reception building/gift shop. Our guide bought our tickets for 18 shekels each (about $4.50) and led us into a large room where we watched a video presentation

Qumran National Park - Home to the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls
Rimon explained that the Qumran site was discovered in 1946 by a Bedouin boy, who went to find a lost goat, but instead found a cave in which clay pots were hidden. In these pots, a treasure of manuscripts was discovered. This discovery led to the discovery of over 700 additional manuscripts in this area.

The discovery of the ancient settlement of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls was thrilling to Christians and Jews alike. The Dead Sea Scrolls had sat undisturbed deep in the caves of the Judean Desert for millennia. From the scrolls and the more prosaic material artifacts found in the Qumran area, historians were able to patch together a clear picture of the way of life and manner of thought of the residents of Qumran. Although Qumran likely had no more than 200 inhabitants, it is hard to overestimate the importance of the ideas promulgated by these individuals.

If you are like me at all, I have heard about the Dead Sea Scrolls for many years but really didn’t know what they consisted of. The following is the official explanation. Altogether more than 500 Hebrew, Aramaic and occasionally also Greek manuscripts, ten of them almost completely preserved, have been found in eleven caves at Qumran. They include all the books of the Old Testament except Esther, together with apocrypha like the Hebrew text of the Book of Sirach, previously known only in translations, and various writings of the Qumran community, including a scroll over 3m/10ft long which contains the whole book of Isaiah in 54 columns and a 2m/6.5ft long scroll with the "manual of discipline" of the Essenes of Qumran. There are also various private documents in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and, more rarely, Nabataean and Latin, and letters, including some from Bar Kochba, found in the wadis to the south of Qumran. Don’t forget this information – there may be a quiz later on?

There are a number of parallels between statements attributed to Jesus in the New Testament and chapters found in the scrolls. Paul cites passages written in Qumran in his Epistles and the author of the Gospel According to John expresses thoughts similar to those recorded in the scrolls. The concept of a uniform prayer service recited at set times during the day was an invention of the residents of Qumran that was adopted by the Sages after the destruction of the Second Temple.

The people of Qumran were apparently the Essenes, who were well known even before the discovery of the scrolls. In his description of Essenes and their radically isolationist world view, the historian Josephus Flavius felt compelled to remark that the members of the cult were of Jewish origin, lest his readers not realize this. The Essenes saw themselves as the chosen ones and believed that the Israelites should follow in their path or suffer the consequences. This approach was responsible for the Essenes' being set apart from the Jews and their departure for the desert, although there were pockets of Essenes in the cities as well, for instance in Jerusalem.

When the video presentation ended, we walked outside and looked at the caves from a distance. Our time at Qumran lasted between 1-2 hours and then it was back on the bus and to the Dead Sea.

Dead Sea

The Dead Sea is a natural wonder which is situated in the center of the great Syrian-African rift valley fault between Israel and the Jordan. The Dead Sea is actually a big inland lake 42 miles long, up to 11 miles wide and it is 1,083 feet deep at the deepest point. It is the lowest point on dry land in the world (1,378 feet below sea level).

Another record held by the Dead Sea is having the highest salt concentration of any of the world's seas, salt lakes or any stretch of water. The salt concentration in the Dead Sea is ten times higher than other seas (for example: the salt concentration in the Dead Sea is 34%, while the concentration in the Mediterranean Sea is only 3.5%). This high salt concentration makes floating in its waters effortless.

The high salinity of the waters in the Dead Sea prevents the existence of life in the water, hence its name. The name "Dead Sea" for the Hebrew "Yam Hamelach" (Salt Sea) was attributed by Christian Monks, astonished by the apparent absence of any form of life in the sea water. Recent scientific research however, discovered 11 types of bacteria in the water.

The Dead Sea is drying quickly. 2,000-3,000 years ago, the level of the Dead Sea was 360 meters below sea level. However, diversion of water from the Jordan River since 1950, by both Jordan and Israel, has reduced to less than the half the flow of water from the Jordan River into the Dead Sea. Today, water evaporation is faster than the water supply and the sea is gradually shrinking. Over the last 30 years, water levels have dropped 25 meters.

This fall of the Dead Sea level has caused another strange and problematic phenomenon in the area. At points where rivers flow into the Dead Sea, (such as Nahal David and Nahal Arugot in the Ein Gedi area), the water is absorbed by the sandy ground and streams underground into the Sea. Because of the fall in the Dead Sea level, the underground rivers flow faster, and carry clay sediments: thus large underground caves have been formed, which sometimes collapse unexpectedly, and people have fallen down holes a few meters deep. This phenomenon causes great damages to tourism and local industries.

I believe that the only reason a person goes to the Dead Sea is to confirm that you can float with ease and not sink if you wanted to. For those of us in the group that decided we wanted to float in the Dead Sea, we came prepared with our bathing suits and towels. We used the changing room to get ready, brought our belongings with us in a plastic bag, asked those not going into the water to watch our belongings, and then headed to the water. It was crowded, it was hot, it was late afternoon and it was very ‘rocky’ for the first 10-15 feet walking into the Dead Sea. Once we got past the rocky bottom, we immediately noticed the salinity of the water, which felt kind of slimy to me. We gave this floating thing a try, and sure enough, when we put our butts into the water, our legs and upper bodies popped out. Without exerting effort, you could not straighten your body. I believe we could have stayed in that semi-sitting position floating for a long, long time. Once we realized that we could float for as long as we wanted – there wasn’t much else to do. We didn’t want to go under water for fear that some of that salty water would get into our mouths - the salt taste was so strong. The water wasn’t refreshing - it was warm. So after a few minutes, we got out, showered and dressed and waited for everyone else to stop playing. The feeling of floating effortlessly is so unique. That being said, I have no desire to visit the Dead Sea again. The feeling is like, ‘been there, done that.’

This was the last stop of the day. We gathered everyone, boarded our wonderfully cool air conditioned bus and headed back to our hotel for dinner and overnight.