Day 7 – the Dead Sea, Masada and Qumran
Today we started our journey making our way toward Masada and the Dead Sea. While we were driving were were able to make out from a distance Bethany where Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead and near where Jesus entered into Jerusalem from. While we drove was saw a rather fast change in landscape. The ground became even more rocky, and more sand appeared the more we got closer to the desert terrain. The Desert of Judaea was like no other place that I’ve been to. This desert is also referred to as the Wilderness or the Wilderness of Judaea. After Jesus was baptized he spent the next forty days in the Wilderness fasting and being tempted by the devil. We saw a couple more camels along side of the road and in the local gas stations, which was pretty neat.
Masada is a very historic place and is where alas, Herod built yet another one of his palaces. This was crazy because he built his paL on top of a mountain in the desert, which was hard to get both food and even more difficult, water to the palace. We took a tram to the top of the mountain and we could view the scenery oaf the mountains and desert as we ascended. Here Romans Laid siege on Masada, where the rebels and Jewish families were residents This siege lasted for only about four to eight weeks. History shows that 960 Jewish people died and seven were captured, which was all of the people living in Masada. Now all that is left is the ruins of the temple and remains from a Byzantine church that was built there.
Next up we went to Qumran, the place where the Dead Sea scrolls where found after they had been hidden in a cave. The Dead Sea Scrolls were pieces of animal skin that had fragments of the Old Testament, a total of 972 texts. In fact, this is the oldest version of the Old Testament that we have today. Though this was a huge discovery, there were still pieces of it missing. The only book that was not found was Esther. The books that were most commonly found are Deuteronomy and Psalms. It was a pretty cool place!
On our next stop was to the Dead Sea. Now, it’s not only a cool place to be, it’s actually the lowest place on earth and also is the saltiest body of water on earth. So salty, in fact, it is impossible to sink and nothing can live in it. Instead of a water feeling it gave off an oily texture. The interesting thing is people come from all around the world just to come here for skin moisturizing and to put the mud on their bodies, as hippie as it sounds, it was all completely natural.
Our last trip was to Jericho, which translates to the “City of the Moon.” Jericho is the oldest city in the world to be continuously inhabited. The first human settlements started around 9,000 and the city has been inhabited ever since. This was very, very cool. To summarize it a little bit, this city was definitely one of the coolest cities that I’ve been in. The city was pretty small and had only 12 to 15 thousand and is known for its farmland. Jesus would have passed on this way to Galilee healed Zacchaeus the corrupt tax collect who was a wee little man and climbed up on the Sycamore tree.. I know too far… from his bad deeds. Here we saw camels in the city and tons of peacocks in the streets.!” I was thinking to myself, “That’s cool right there, I don’t care who you are.”
