Masada and The Dead Sea

“Red Sea, Med Sea, Dead Sea”, that is what a popular Israeli t-shirt says, and I decided that one of my goals on this trip was to swim in each one of those seas. Saturday, May 6, 2011 was to be the day for my dip in the Dead Sea.  It was also a day to check out Masada, something I had seen in a recent documentary and also in the film of the same name, starring Peter O’Toole as the Roman General, Silva. I had always wondered what Masada really looked like and I certainly satisfied that curiosity, as you will see.

We drove out of Ashdod early in the morning on the Jewish Sabbath and traveled down towards the Dead Sea. The highway just kept dropping. That is because the Dead Sea is the lowest place on earth. I’m not kidding! It is 420 meters below sea level. After about an hour and a half drive you end up at the site of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

We then continued driving along beside the shore of the Dead Sea, where we could see massive sinkholes, which were recently formed. The sea has receded in recent years most likely due to the practice of mining potash from the mineral-rich waters of the sea by both the Israelis and the Jordanians. And when it recedes the broad shorelines are dangerous areas.  This is because as fresh water comes in flash floods from rainstorms in the highlands, it drains down to the Dead Sea and on the way it dissolves massive salt deposits that are laid down beside the lake. Very large tracts of the area are off-limits to hikers and off-roaders alike.  

As we drove down the highway, of a sudden we could pick out Masada rising up in front of us. Masada is a massive horst block of limestone that rises above the Dead Sea and along the edge of the Great Rift Valley. If it stays intact, Masada will be a great sedimentary target some day and it should be very visible on seismic when the area fills up with sediments millions of years into the future.

We then pulled into the Masada Visitors Centre.  We were going to go up onto the mountain today, but thank God, we did not have to walk. It was about 35 degrees C and the climb is about 400 meters straight up. Fortunately, the Israelis have installed a beautiful cable car and we were able to whip up there in no time.

Of course Masada is not just a cool geological feature, it is a major historical and archeological site and was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001. The Masada complex, built by Herod the Great, King of Judaea, who reigned between 37 BC and 4 AD, and particularly the "hanging" palace with its three terraces, is an outstanding example of opulent architectural design. There is some elaborate engineering here, and the whole thing was constructed under some pretty extreme conditions. One level of the palace had probably the very first infinity pool, where the pool retaining wall hangs out over a 400-meter drop. That brings you to another amazing feat of engineering. Where did they get the fresh water in that inhospitable climate with no ground water in the area? The answer is that they built an ingenious system of water catchment that directed the runoff from very rare rainy days into massive cisterns that ring the mountain and are now accessible to view by cable-car riding tourists like me.

Masada is also the historic site of the Roman siege of the Jewish Zealots in 72 A.D. The Romans were mad as hell because these Jews had overrun the Roman garrison in 66 A.D. and had been squatting up there ever since. Subsequently, this Silva guy commanding Roman X Legion besieged the mountain and eventually built a ramp up the west side to breach the walls. I won’t bore you with details, but on the last night before the Romans came through the breach in the wall, all the Zealots, except 2 or 3 which hid in a cistern, killed themselves rather than become slaves of Rome. And you can imagine the scene when Peter O’Toole found out he had gone to all that trouble and he couldn’t have his victory. Anyways, the Masada half-day visit was really something special for us and it should be a high priority visit when you travel to Israel as well.

The afternoon program consisted of another great kosher lunch followed by a dip in the Red Sea. Going for a float is kind of fun. You just do not want to get any of that water in your eyes, ears or throat because those minerals burn a bit. I was told to enter the sea slowly and then to surrender to it and you would float on it like you have never floated before. I must have entered too fast because I got some of that ultra-saline water in my nose and it ended up draining into my throat. I did not panic though, and I floated there for a few minutes beside Mrs. Gym and then went for a shower.

After our Dead Sea float we drove back to Ashdod and got back on our boat. Following this entry I am going to put another short blog together which deals with the modern Israel. I have a few more pictures that I will insert with that article that I hope you will enjoy.  

I am sitting in Mykonos, Greece right now catching up on the blog. I am way behind. I need to also tell you about Kusadasi, Turkey and the Ephesus ruins where we spent a full day. We have also enjoyed a half-day private tour of Athens and the Parthenon after we got off the boat. We are getting our land legs back slowly. Mrs. Gym is resting comfortably in the room next door while I put this together in the sitting room. The weather here is windy and cold, the first bad weather we have experienced for many weeks.

The Dead Sea Scrolls were found up there!

Giant sinkholes - beware!

Masada National Park and UNESCO World Heritage Center

looking up at start of cable car ride

An idiot climbing friable cliff

The hard way up

catwalk from cable car to top of plateau

Looking over the edge at the catchment system

Moshe our guide, a veteran Israeli paratrooper of the Yom Kipper War in 1973

Roman fortifications

Roman warehouses

The first infinity pool built on a cliff just below the top of the Masada
plateau (see note of last picture).

 

A small crow which Moshe said was unique to the Dead Sea area

Giant water cistern. Those Romans were pretty crafty.
Of course they used slaves to carve these out of the limestone.

Going for a float

The Dead Sea Strip includes 14 luxury resorts. Some have casinos.

After our float in the Dead Sea we left the hotel we had used for lunch,
change rooms and showers and I noticed the doorman was armed. It is very open in Israel.

Oh yea, I wanted to show you what Herod's Palace looked like in model form.
The infinity pool is the conical structure with columns. His bedchambers were
on the lowest level and The Linda was standing above it all looking over the cliff to take the picture.