israel post 9

Thursday, May 2

We spent some time on the bus this day, traveling a ways to see lots of different sites. We started with Qumran, the Dead Sea Scrolls archaeological site/museum. The Dead Sea Scrolls are the pieces of the biblical documents that have been found. Some of the scrolls we saw at the museum were originals, but most were duplications. You will see below a photo of a suspected spot where some of the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. Along our bus ride to and from this site, we saw a lot of brown...miles and miles of nothing, really. Wilderness.

This is Moshe, our bus driver! He had the best smile...

Every so often we would see the random donkey, with the nomad communities.

This is how I imagined Israel would look...

Along our travels, we had to cross through a check point...while we were waiting, a car behind us decided it didn't want to wait. So the driver got out, moved the blue barrier, and proceeded to try to drive right on through. As you can see here, the military soldier didn't like that, and moved that blue barrier right on back! I would not have messed with a solider wearing a machine gun!

The little triangle that is near the center of the above photo is where they suspect the Dead Sea Scrolls were found...

We had lunch at Qumran, and then headed on to Masada. Masada was one site that I was really excited to see first hand. I had read a novel called The Dovekeepers that I really loved...and the novel was set at Masada. I was curious to see how accurate the novel portrayed the area. Masada is located on top of a very tall plateau, where Herod built a great fortress. During the time when Rome was conquering the nation, a group of rebel Jews escaped to this plateau and lived for many years. Surrounded by sharp cliffs on all sides, it was quite fortified. It took the Romans one year to build a ramp that allowed them to crawl up the cliffs and take over the plateau. However, when the Romans crested the top of the ramp, ready to fight the last of the Jewish people, they were met with an unexpected sight. The rebel Jews had a suicide pact, and had a mass suicide right before the Romans arrived. They decided that it was more noble to commit suicide than to live as slaves to the Romans. Apparently, two women and five children are all that remained, hidden. The book I read ended up being from the point of view of one of those women. I was very impressed with how accurate the book was, and it really helped bring the whole area to life for me. Chris immensely enjoyed this site too...it was one of his favorites!

To travel to the top of the plateau, we rode in these cable cars -- up to the plateau and then down again when we were done. A few brave souls walked the ancient steps to the top. In that heat, no thanks!!

Remains of the fortress walls...

Chris and I with Masada in the background...

Our Yellow Bus tour group, walking through the ruins...there's me and Kim, leading the pack!

Cisterns like these held enough rainwater to sustain their water needs for years. They were huge!

I was most excited to see the dovecotes, which was a prominent part of the book I read. The women worked in the dovecoves with the doves, and the squares above is where the doves would sleep.

It was really so impressive to think of them building this fortress on top of this plateau -- how did they get all of the supplies up there? Herod also had very fine taste, so there were mosaics and frescos, etc. It was the perfect place for the rebel Jews to make their final stand, as there was still food in the store rooms from when Herod was there and there was always plenty of water. We were also able to see the area where the Roman's ramp was built. Pretty awesome site, all the way around!!