Sunday March 6, 2011 - Masada

---

Sunday March 6,2011
I got up early to get a picture of the sun rising over the mountains in Jordan. We are heading out to Masada this morning.
We just finished a two hour tour of Masada. We took a cable ride to the top of the mountain. We learned and saw the structures that were built. King Herod built two palaces to winter at. He constructed large water cisterns and collection systems. He also had roman style bathhouses and markets. The most important event was the siege of Masada. The romans attacked the jewish zealots who had escaped after the fall Jerusalem. They held the mountain until the romans built a ramp. The ramp eventually broke the walls down and the romans found all of them dead (1,000 men and women). The zealots decided they would rather die as free people than as slaves. They took their own lives.
Next stop, En Gedi, is the location of a fresh water stream flowing through mountains to the Dead Sea. It also called David's Stream. The Bible has the story of Saul pursuing David and this the location of David sparing Saul' life and where David cut off a piece of Saul's robe. See 1 Samuel 23:26-29 through 1 Samuel 24:1-22. We have pictured the springs and the valley.
We started heading north and entered the West Bank area towards Jerusalem. We have one more stop and lunch before we enter Jerusalem.
We had at Qumran park. It had a restaurant and we enjoyed a cafeteria style meal. Lunch was expensive and not that good. We toured the area and saw where the Dead Sea scrolls were found. We also learned of Essenes.
We stopped at a lookout area and took pictures of the desert and valley between Jericho and Jerusalem. Beautiful scenery and we were met by a group of bedoins and their children. It was the first beggars we encountered.
We just arrived in East Jerusalem. On our way here was shanty villages and garbage strewn areas. This the first time we have see the poverty and the poor.
We just stopped and got out of the bus and got our first view of the old city of ;Jerusalem! It is much bigger than we expected. Jerusalem is large city and we were surprised at the poverty level. We are on our way to the hotel. We will be visiting the "Wailing Wall" tomorrow morning. Please let us know through the comment section on the website for any prayer requests you may have.

Love
Doug and Sherry

---

Photos

At the old city of Jerusalem
We are here and getting ready to tour the old city on Monday.

Le Meridien Hotel - Dead Sea
The front of hotel Sunday night - beautiful

Sunrise over the Dead Sea
I took this picture at sunrise from the shores of the Dead Sea

Cable car ride to the top of Masada
The view from the base of the gondola before heading up to the top of Masada

Gondola arriving
Here is a picture of the gondola arriving at the top,

Entering the gate at Masada
Here we are entering the gate of Masada

Looking down
Here is the view from the top - looking down an old roman garrison ruin

Sherry in the gate to Masada
Here was the guards area in the gate to Masada.

Yovaul teaching - Herods Palace
Yovaul was our guide for the week. Here is teaching us about King Herod's palace.

Wall deco -
This is the finish found in one of rooms in the palace, over 2,000 years old.

Tempel Model - Masada
This a model of what the three King Herod palaces looked like built into the northside of the mountain.

Today the three temples
Here is what the temples look like today. This is looking down from the first temple.

Roman bathhouse
Roman bathouse built on the mountain for the residents. The small columns were use to hold the false floor to heat the room (Steamroom).

Heat source and wall tiles
The bath house had a heat source (fire) and hollow tiles on the wall to force the heat up the walls (Sauna style)

Synagogue at Masada
This is the synagogue at Masada (was a stable in Herod's time) used by the jewish Zealots in 73 AD to decide their fate.

Roman Ramp
This is the ramp used by the Romans to breach the gate and enter Masada.

Breached gate
This is the gate the romans breached and entered Masada to find all 1,000 residents dead!

En Gedi - David's Spring
We traveled to the famous spring of David. David confronted Saul in a cave - see 1 Samuel : 23 to 1 Samuel 24:30

Ibex (goats with horns)
As we were leaving En Gedi we spotted three Ibex's large goats with horns.

Qumaran - Location of the Dead Sea Scrolls
This is one of the caves seven of the Dead Sea scrolls were found.

More caves - more scrolls
Many caves were discovered here in 1948. The scrolls were made by the Essenes (a monk like tribe in the time of Jesus) who lived here and copied the Bible and stored the scrolls in clay pots. They hid them in the caves from the Romans.