Wow. Cannot believe it is already Wednesday. MB and I wake up, eat our delicious fresh granola from the bakery with the hazelnuts and pumpkin seeds and all kinds of good stuff, pick up bagels for the kids (B got her egg with yellow cheese sandwich!), and set off for Agron to pick up J & B. We had researched the route the night before, because we were a little concerned that we were going to be in the West Bank, and discovered that Routes 1 and 90 were under Israeli control. It's good that we did this, because as it turns out, Mabel didn't like the area east of Jlem, and kept trying to turn us around. In fact, it appears that her maps don't include the area. But, it was easy enough to get there. We traveled west through barren, sand covered mountains in the desert, which were broken up by the occasional bedouin shacks. It really made you think about how difficult it must have been 1700 years ago for the Masada Jews to escape war torn Jlem and somehow trek all the way down to Masada through such inhospitable landscape. More on the history later.
On the way to Rte 90, we stopped for gas. There were tons of IDF soldiers at the gas station, many cars, and several camels were parked there as well. So, we got our gas, got air in the tires that we probably didn't need, but I'm a nerd and I fell for the gas station's guy statement that we were low, and followed a bus out onto Rte 1. The bus was going kind of slow, and another car had just passed him, so I swung out to do the same. Um, except that we were on a two-way highway, and I swung out into the oncoming traffic, which just so happened to be oncoming at the time. Oops. Anyway, after discovering the brakes on the Getz were in excellent working order, we were back in the correct lane behind the slow bus, who turned off soon thereafter, and we turned south onto 90.
Driving along the Dead Sea was beautiful. It is the lowest point on earth (422 meters or about 1300 feet below sea level), and one of the saltiest lakes, with 33.7% salinity (almost 9 times saltier than the ocean). Its eastern bank is the beautiful Red Mountains of Jordan. We kept heading south, passing Ein Gedi, the oasis, knowing we'd be back there to take a dip in the Dead Sea after our trip to Masada. Fun fact - King Herod used the Dead Sea as a health resort 2000 years ago. It was also a place of refuge for King David before that, and of course the salt and minerals from the sea are very popular today in skin care products.
Masada was amazing. The most amazing thing about it is, of course, that I made the hike up the Snake Path. My companions had no trouble, but I had a tough time getting into my aerobic steady state, and it was halfway up the darn mountain before I really caught my breath - but it was so worth it!
Masada was originally built by (guess who?) Herod as another palace to impress his Roman compatriots, in about 30 BCE. about 100 years later, when the Romans were busy killing all the Jews in Jerusalem, a band of Zealots (967 men, women and children) escaped to Masada (up the same Snake Path that we hiked up but I'm guessing there were no railings!) and overthrew the Roman garrison that was stationed there. While holed up in Masada, the Zealots carried out various raids against Romans, at Ein Gedi and elsewhere, and were generally a problem for the Romans. The Romans followed them, but before they got there, the Zealots managed to store sufficient provisions so that 2 years later, when the Romans finished their assault ramp, they still had food and water (rainwater was collected in Herod's great cistern system). But, while the Romans were mounting their assault up the ramp, the Zealots were carrying out their plan to make the Roman victory an empty one - every last person (minus the 2 women and 5 children who apparently survived and told the story to the formerly Jewish historian, Josephus) was dead. It wasn't exactly suicide, since they drew lots and certain men were designated to kill first the women and children, then each other, until the last man killed himself. Some of the lots, with the names of the men, still exist. The Zealots did this very consciously, to avoid enslavement of the men after Roman capture, and the use of the women and children as prostitutes and slaves.
We took the cable car down after exploring the ruins of the palace and fortress, which were amazing. Then, it was off to Ein Gedi. We arrived just in time for the bathrooms/showers to close, so we changed in the car - tricky but doable! and ended up saving about 20 shekels on the bath house. We all had fun "swimming" in the Dead Sea, although I personally got out pretty quickly and took photos of the others with B's camera. B, if you are reading this, I would really love to get those photos! Then we showered in the free, outdoor (somewhat chilly) showers, and changed out of our suits, again in the car. I'm afraid I wasn't paying attention and left the driver's door open a couple of times while MB was changing, and the boys in the car a few spots away from us maybe saw something they shouldn't have (oops again). But, we got all dry and changed, and set off for Jlem. By the way, there is an IDF checkpoint on 90. As Jordana told us would happen, they waved us on because the Israelis have no problem with profiling, and they knew we weren't terrorists, so no passport checks or questions for us.
Back in Jlem, we must have had dinner, but for the life of me, I can't remember what we did that night, and would love my traveling companions to fill me in on that...
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