Day 12 - The Dead Sea

Whew, what a day! we had a busy day, and one that was suprisingly physical. But I do have a test tommorow and I have used up a good chunk of time posting the rest of our Sinai trip and talking about what we did yesteray (scroll down to see) so I will try to make this fast.

Today we hiked up Masada, we went to the En Gedi Oasis, we floated in the Dead Sea, and we went to Qumran, which is where the dead sea scrolls were found. I'll try to make a couple of quick notes about each of these stops.

Masada. Masada is one of the three major fortresses that Herod the Great built, but that is not what makes it famous. It is famous because it was the last place standing during the Jewish revolt of 66-73 AD. Jerusalem fell and the temple was destroyed by 70 AD but Masada held out for three more years. That was mainly dependant to the fact that Masada is probably one of the best fortresses ever built. It is built on top of a 1000 foot tall mountain that has steep cliffs on all sides. The water system is desigined to catch water from all of the sourrounding areas and the cisterns are so large that they can hold enough water for years. Food can be grown there and the store rooms are so massive that even after three years of a siege the Jews that were there had pleanty of food (and water) left over. The only reason Masada fell was because the Romans built a massive siege ramp that came up on one side of Masada and eventually burned down part of the wall (stone fortified with wood to protect against a battering ram). When the wall burned down and it was clear that the Romans would breach the wall and take Masada in the morning, 960 of the 967 Jews that were there committed suicide rather than being captured and taken into slavery by the Romans. Two women and five children hid and survived.

We hiked up Masada to see the sunrise, unfortunately I forgot my camera (it was early and I was pretty tired) so I don't have any pictures, but watching the sun rise over the dead sea was pretty awesome. After our time there in the morning a few of us decided that it would be fun to jog down the Masada to the base (there were a lot of stairs) so we made it down in about 15 minutes, which was really fun.

After Masada we went to the En Gedi Oasis. David probably hid from Saul at some point in the En Gedi Oasis. In fact, the cave where David cut off part of Saul's cloak may have been somewhere in En Gedi. We hiked back into the canyon to one of the big waterfalls and then we hiked back out. This hike was pretty easy (Masada had a pretty tough staircase at the end), partly because it was reall crowded so we couldn't move that fast.

(The big waterfall at En Gedi)

(the dead sea from En Gedi oasis)

After En Gedi we crossed the street, ate lunch and then swam in the dead sea. I'm not sure if swam is the right word, floated is probably more accurate. It is a really strange feeling, you cannot sink. The water acutally has a denser mineral content than the human body does (the water is 30-35% solid matter) so when you dip into it, you just float. You do need to be careful though, you don't want to get it in your eyes, it apparently burns so badly that some people absolutely freak out. The water is beautiful, and apparently has healing qualities, there are some skin conditions that can be cured by regular soakings in the dead sea. I got some on my lips though, and it tasted pretty gross. In fact, even though I took a shower after I got out my hands still felt wierd and tasted like salt for the rest of the day.

(The lowest point on earth, the dead sea. About 1300 feet below sea level)

After the dead sea we went to Qumran. Qumran is a community that existed during the new testament time of these people who seperated themselves from society because of a desire to stay pure from the corruption that existed in some places. We are not exactly sure, but for some reason there were 11 caves around their community that were found that were full of scrolls (mostly pieces of scrolls) over 900 scrolls were found, and among other things they found every book of the Old Testament (except Esther) and the copies that they found were about 1000 years older than the oldest copy of the Old Testament that we have. And they are almost exactly the same. You have heard of these scrolls, they are the dead sea scrolls.

After we left Qumran we made a bonus stop, which ended up being one of the coolest bonus stops ever. Our teacher, Todd is one of the few people who know where cave 1 is, where they discovered the first dead sea scroll (also the cave where they discovered a complete copy of hte book of Isaiah - a really big deal). And as Todd said today, he is the only person who is crazy enough to take people up to the cave. So after telling us that the way to the cave was dangerous, difficult, dangerous, and hard, about 30 people decided to follow him up to the cave. The terrain is pretty tough getting over there, up and down wadi's, rocks everywhere, really sharp rocks that you have to climb up in order to get to the cave. When we left the bus Todd looked back and saw how many people were following him and he started to run up and down the wadis. I'm pretty sure he was trying to disuade people from coming with him but everyone kept following (although by this point my legs were pretty shot. I can hike pretty fast if I need to, even up hills and stairs, but running up these sandy wadis was really tough).

The cave was cool, there was nothing special about it other than it was cave 1Q, but it was way cool to be able to be one of the few people in the world who have been there where that important discovery was made.

(me inside cave one)

And that was it for our day. I really good day, a lot of hiking and a lot of fun, and I am looking forward to having more of a down day tomorrow in Jerusalem (free day). Time for me to study. Until tomorrow, thanks for reading.