03-30-2014, 03:05 PM
Snake path climb at dawn. That phrase struck a chord deep within me. When I knew I was going to be visiting Masada, I knew that was the way I wanted to do it.
The reality of the climb was bit less prosaic. The climb to the top should take about an hour according to the literature. Masada lies about ninety minutes by car south of Jerusalem where we stayed for our Honeymoon. Figure on forty minutes to get ready to go south.
The ugly wake-up time math had us getting up at 2:30 for our romantic snake path climb. Let’s be serious, 2:30am isn’t a wake-up time, it is more of a go to bed after partying time.
Regardless, there we were in the dark of the morning in the YMCA lobby convincing the security the guard to open up the parking lot so we could get our rental car. Our guide, Alexandra showed up promptly, too, despite the fact she almost bowed out of the trip. Earlier she had a nasty chest cold that left her feeling weak. She warned us again not to get our hopes for a dramatic sunrise as those did not happen very frequently.
As we pulled into the dark parking lot at Masada, avoiding the stray dog, I spotted the moon just rising over the massif. The snake path didn’t open until 4:30, so I had some time to set up the tripod and shoot the bright light of the moon coming through the wispy clouds.
The broad gradual climb of the Snake Path quickly devolved into a never ending series of steps. In the beginning, I thought our guide, Alexandra was going to kill us with her quick pace but her cold caught up to her and her pace diminished. I on the other hand increased my pace when I realized that if I wanted to be in position for the sunrise, I had better climb faster.
The sun only comes up once a day, so be ready when it does is an adage I hear a lot. I didn’t come all this way to screw that up.
Eventually, the hellish stairs ended and I found myself standing amidst the ruins of Herod’s city. The moon still hovered above the western horizon, posing nicely behind a ruined wall. I had some time so I took a few shots.
The sky overhead slowly gave way to blue as I set up my GoPro to catch a time-lapse sunrise. Cindi and Alexandra joined me in one of the buildings near the eastern edge of Masada to shoot the object we came to shoot.
Well, our fight with the sands from the Sahara continued as dust and fog blocked our view. You know things are bad when your guide remarks she doesn’t think the sun is up, yet. You tell her according to the clock it has been up for 25 minutes. The sun when we could see it, was a sickly yellow orb barely visible through the murk.
There would be no spectacular views of the Dead Sea or the Judean hills that day. Then again, the close up things on Masada made the climb worth it.
Detailed metal models showed how the buildings would have looked back in Herod’s time. Black lines on the buildings showed the demarcation between original finds and recreation. Alexandra spent plenty of time trying to snare our attention with facts and figures of the inhabitants while Cindi and I photographed every little rock.
We were awed at the public bath house. We made the steep climb down to see Herod’s Northern Palace. From there, we were able to see the caves that were the cisterns for the city.
Herod was famous for taking inhospitable places and shaping them to his needs. If the place was flat, he would build a mountain. If the place had no water he would build a palace there and bring water to it. There was a great interactive model that showed how the water was brought from the hills to fill Masada’s cisterns.
Near the main gate, Alexandra read to us from Flavius Josephus, a noted historian from the time of the Jewish revolt in 66AD. The passage told how the Romans finally made it into the city after a long siege only to find all the inhabitants dead by their own hands.
We headed to the less populated southern side of Masada to climb into one of the upper level cisterns. We waited on the steep stone stairs while a group of young adults had a meeting down on the sandy floor. A shaft of light from a hole in the wall illuminated years of graffiti in the cistern.
Alexandra made special note of section of the wall that showed a message from a Jewish Group from 1943. At the same time the holocaust occurred in Germany, Jews were here planning the birth of Israel.
Before departing, Cindi did the traditional thing of yelling ‘Masada’ off the southern edge of the plateau to hear it echo back to us.
Long lines of training soldiers climbing the stairs passed us going up as we descended. About every fourth soldier also carried his loaded M-16 on his climb. It was nice to see quite a few of the young men having to stop for rest breaks. Probably one of the reasons they needed these rest breaks was the fact they smoked cigarettes when they stopped.
Our next stop was the Oasis of Ein Gedi. We weren’t ten steps into the park, already talking about our hopes to see some Nubian Ibex, when a small group of them crossed the path in front of us.
The hike to the David Falls was quite easy after the hike to Masada. The trails follows the course of the river up the narrow canyon. Ein Gedi means Goat Spring in both Arabic and Hebrew. It is mentioned several times in the bible, particularly as the place were King David hides from King Saul. David has a chance to kill Saul unawares in a cave while Saul is relieving himself but cuts Saul’s cloak instead.
One of our group took off his shirt and shoes and ventured into the cold pool below a short water fall. Awkward topless photographs of him waterlogged are even now ruining the inter-webs.
On the way out of the park, we saw the other predominant mammal in Ein Gedi, the Rock Hyrax. Despite looking like a large rodent, the Hyrax’s closest relative is actually the elephant. When the tourists saw what I was photographing in the bushes, a mass of iPads appeared and started pursuit of the shy creature.
We stopped for lunch at the Ein Gedi spa for a cafeteria style lunch which turned out to be quite tasty. Because of the shrinking of the Dead Sea due to diversions in the River Jordan, the Ein Gedi spa now lies distant from the edge of the sea. People there take a bus from the facilities to the actual shore.
Our destination for our Dead Sea immersion was further up the road at Mineral Springs. Mineral Springs was closer to the water but there was still a hike after changing into our swim suits to the beach.
As we walked the path, you could still see the abandoned facilities from previous shorelines.
Maybe to other cultures or people, dipping into the water of the Dead Sea is a glorious experience. For me, it was like stepping into cool sludge. Cindi, gamely coated her arms and legs with the black Dead Sea Mud, but she looked as unhappy about this process as I felt.
She went in first, making tortured faces as she slowly lowered into the water. And I use the term water loosely. It was very oily from the minerals in it. Dirt like oil slicks floated atop the surface. If it weren’t for the Dead Sea Experience, I would never have gone in upon seeing it. Cindi after rinsing off the dead sea muck, couldn’t get out of the water fast enough.
To be fair, all the people around us seem to be enjoying themselves, except for the woman who had cut her foot and was limping away as fast she could from the giant bath of cut finder. I even saw a woman try and swim in the water as if she were in a regular pool. This is a great way to get an eye full of the caustic contents of the sea.
Our final stop was Qumrun. Qumrun is the spot where the goat herder found the dead sea scrolls in the cliffs. It is also the site of the Essene community where mostly likely the scrolls were written.
Going to Qumrun was the completion of our Dead Sea Scroll journey. On the previous Friday, we had gone to the Israel Museum and seen the actual scrolls. On Monday, we had visited the shop of Kando who had purchased the scrolls from the Goat Herder. An original Dead Sea Scroll jar was still on display in the Kando heirs shop. And now we were looking up at where the scrolls were found.
An archeological dig is taking place at Qumrun and pathways take you through the old city. Qumrun was home to the Essene sect of Judaism. They were fanatical about using their Mikva’s or ritual bath. Most every house had one and if that wasn’t enough their were public Mikvas as well.
That’s why it makes sense that John the Baptist might have lived here. The Essene’s took in orphans and John’s father had been killed by the Romans. Plus, there is all that bathing that John later made famous.
The ruins are more impressive for what they mean than what they actually are. By this time of our trip through the city, Cindi and I had seen a lot of ruins on our tour so it takes a lot to get us interested. I know I was more impressed by the stories than seeing another low crumbling wall of stone. It was also just possible Jesus might have lived with this group of Essenes as well. But John would be more of a certainty.
We celebrated our last night in Jerusalem by going across the street to the King David Hotel and splurging on dinner. I’m glad I went there the last night. The views from the Garden Dining room towards the old city were phenomenal. If I had come earlier on our trip, I would have been compelled to eat their every night just so I could watch Jerusalem while I dined.
I had the diet busting Belgian Waffles for desert which came complete with many many toppings. Yet, another reason to go here last rather eat that many calories every day.
The reality of the climb was bit less prosaic. The climb to the top should take about an hour according to the literature. Masada lies about ninety minutes by car south of Jerusalem where we stayed for our Honeymoon. Figure on forty minutes to get ready to go south.
The ugly wake-up time math had us getting up at 2:30 for our romantic snake path climb. Let’s be serious, 2:30am isn’t a wake-up time, it is more of a go to bed after partying time.
Regardless, there we were in the dark of the morning in the YMCA lobby convincing the security the guard to open up the parking lot so we could get our rental car. Our guide, Alexandra showed up promptly, too, despite the fact she almost bowed out of the trip. Earlier she had a nasty chest cold that left her feeling weak. She warned us again not to get our hopes for a dramatic sunrise as those did not happen very frequently.
As we pulled into the dark parking lot at Masada, avoiding the stray dog, I spotted the moon just rising over the massif. The snake path didn’t open until 4:30, so I had some time to set up the tripod and shoot the bright light of the moon coming through the wispy clouds.
The broad gradual climb of the Snake Path quickly devolved into a never ending series of steps. In the beginning, I thought our guide, Alexandra was going to kill us with her quick pace but her cold caught up to her and her pace diminished. I on the other hand increased my pace when I realized that if I wanted to be in position for the sunrise, I had better climb faster.
The sun only comes up once a day, so be ready when it does is an adage I hear a lot. I didn’t come all this way to screw that up.
Eventually, the hellish stairs ended and I found myself standing amidst the ruins of Herod’s city. The moon still hovered above the western horizon, posing nicely behind a ruined wall. I had some time so I took a few shots.
The sky overhead slowly gave way to blue as I set up my GoPro to catch a time-lapse sunrise. Cindi and Alexandra joined me in one of the buildings near the eastern edge of Masada to shoot the object we came to shoot.
Well, our fight with the sands from the Sahara continued as dust and fog blocked our view. You know things are bad when your guide remarks she doesn’t think the sun is up, yet. You tell her according to the clock it has been up for 25 minutes. The sun when we could see it, was a sickly yellow orb barely visible through the murk.
There would be no spectacular views of the Dead Sea or the Judean hills that day. Then again, the close up things on Masada made the climb worth it.
Detailed metal models showed how the buildings would have looked back in Herod’s time. Black lines on the buildings showed the demarcation between original finds and recreation. Alexandra spent plenty of time trying to snare our attention with facts and figures of the inhabitants while Cindi and I photographed every little rock.
We were awed at the public bath house. We made the steep climb down to see Herod’s Northern Palace. From there, we were able to see the caves that were the cisterns for the city.
Herod was famous for taking inhospitable places and shaping them to his needs. If the place was flat, he would build a mountain. If the place had no water he would build a palace there and bring water to it. There was a great interactive model that showed how the water was brought from the hills to fill Masada’s cisterns.
Near the main gate, Alexandra read to us from Flavius Josephus, a noted historian from the time of the Jewish revolt in 66AD. The passage told how the Romans finally made it into the city after a long siege only to find all the inhabitants dead by their own hands.
We headed to the less populated southern side of Masada to climb into one of the upper level cisterns. We waited on the steep stone stairs while a group of young adults had a meeting down on the sandy floor. A shaft of light from a hole in the wall illuminated years of graffiti in the cistern.
Alexandra made special note of section of the wall that showed a message from a Jewish Group from 1943. At the same time the holocaust occurred in Germany, Jews were here planning the birth of Israel.
Before departing, Cindi did the traditional thing of yelling ‘Masada’ off the southern edge of the plateau to hear it echo back to us.
Long lines of training soldiers climbing the stairs passed us going up as we descended. About every fourth soldier also carried his loaded M-16 on his climb. It was nice to see quite a few of the young men having to stop for rest breaks. Probably one of the reasons they needed these rest breaks was the fact they smoked cigarettes when they stopped.
Our next stop was the Oasis of Ein Gedi. We weren’t ten steps into the park, already talking about our hopes to see some Nubian Ibex, when a small group of them crossed the path in front of us.
The hike to the David Falls was quite easy after the hike to Masada. The trails follows the course of the river up the narrow canyon. Ein Gedi means Goat Spring in both Arabic and Hebrew. It is mentioned several times in the bible, particularly as the place were King David hides from King Saul. David has a chance to kill Saul unawares in a cave while Saul is relieving himself but cuts Saul’s cloak instead.
One of our group took off his shirt and shoes and ventured into the cold pool below a short water fall. Awkward topless photographs of him waterlogged are even now ruining the inter-webs.
On the way out of the park, we saw the other predominant mammal in Ein Gedi, the Rock Hyrax. Despite looking like a large rodent, the Hyrax’s closest relative is actually the elephant. When the tourists saw what I was photographing in the bushes, a mass of iPads appeared and started pursuit of the shy creature.
We stopped for lunch at the Ein Gedi spa for a cafeteria style lunch which turned out to be quite tasty. Because of the shrinking of the Dead Sea due to diversions in the River Jordan, the Ein Gedi spa now lies distant from the edge of the sea. People there take a bus from the facilities to the actual shore.
Our destination for our Dead Sea immersion was further up the road at Mineral Springs. Mineral Springs was closer to the water but there was still a hike after changing into our swim suits to the beach.
As we walked the path, you could still see the abandoned facilities from previous shorelines.
Maybe to other cultures or people, dipping into the water of the Dead Sea is a glorious experience. For me, it was like stepping into cool sludge. Cindi, gamely coated her arms and legs with the black Dead Sea Mud, but she looked as unhappy about this process as I felt.
She went in first, making tortured faces as she slowly lowered into the water. And I use the term water loosely. It was very oily from the minerals in it. Dirt like oil slicks floated atop the surface. If it weren’t for the Dead Sea Experience, I would never have gone in upon seeing it. Cindi after rinsing off the dead sea muck, couldn’t get out of the water fast enough.
To be fair, all the people around us seem to be enjoying themselves, except for the woman who had cut her foot and was limping away as fast she could from the giant bath of cut finder. I even saw a woman try and swim in the water as if she were in a regular pool. This is a great way to get an eye full of the caustic contents of the sea.
Our final stop was Qumrun. Qumrun is the spot where the goat herder found the dead sea scrolls in the cliffs. It is also the site of the Essene community where mostly likely the scrolls were written.
Going to Qumrun was the completion of our Dead Sea Scroll journey. On the previous Friday, we had gone to the Israel Museum and seen the actual scrolls. On Monday, we had visited the shop of Kando who had purchased the scrolls from the Goat Herder. An original Dead Sea Scroll jar was still on display in the Kando heirs shop. And now we were looking up at where the scrolls were found.
An archeological dig is taking place at Qumrun and pathways take you through the old city. Qumrun was home to the Essene sect of Judaism. They were fanatical about using their Mikva’s or ritual bath. Most every house had one and if that wasn’t enough their were public Mikvas as well.
That’s why it makes sense that John the Baptist might have lived here. The Essene’s took in orphans and John’s father had been killed by the Romans. Plus, there is all that bathing that John later made famous.
The ruins are more impressive for what they mean than what they actually are. By this time of our trip through the city, Cindi and I had seen a lot of ruins on our tour so it takes a lot to get us interested. I know I was more impressed by the stories than seeing another low crumbling wall of stone. It was also just possible Jesus might have lived with this group of Essenes as well. But John would be more of a certainty.
We celebrated our last night in Jerusalem by going across the street to the King David Hotel and splurging on dinner. I’m glad I went there the last night. The views from the Garden Dining room towards the old city were phenomenal. If I had come earlier on our trip, I would have been compelled to eat their every night just so I could watch Jerusalem while I dined.
I had the diet busting Belgian Waffles for desert which came complete with many many toppings. Yet, another reason to go here last rather eat that many calories every day.
So much for the flickr badge idea. Dammit