Masada – Qumran – Dead Sea - Jericho

On our fourth day in Israel, we drove a little ways out of the city into the desert. When I say desert, I legitimately mean the desert. I have only seen places like it in movies. It was one of the coolest parts of this trip. We headed to the desert to see a city on hill desert hill, Masada. We had to take a cable car up the huge hill just to get to this very reserved city. But once we reached the top, it was worth it. There was not much left but from the story, it was an amazing city. Herod started this city by building an extravagant palace here. It was built into the side of the mountain and over looked the entire area. The view was so beautiful. Part of the palace still remains. I cannot even imagine what the real thing looked like. After Herod passed away, the city slowly dwindled out. A couple of centuries later, the Jews discovered it and used it as a place of refuge from the Romans. When the Romans finally discovered where the Jews were hiding and began to siege the place, the Jews cast lots and decided that ten men would kill everyone left and then kill each other. The last man standing had to commit suicide. It was basically a mass suicide. When the Romans arrived, they only found two women and one child left alive. The view from this ancient city was indescribable. You could see for miles. I was in love.

Basilica

Cable Car Ride

Cistern(held water)

City

Fresco

Herod's Palace

Herod's Palace

Herod's Palace

Model of Herod's Palace

Model of City

Ramp the Romans used to siege the Jewish refuge camp

Residential Home

After Masada, we began on our journey to our nest destination, Qumran. We had a little catastrophe on the way though. Our bus broke down in the middle of the desert. We were broke down for an hour or two and I will admit it, I was terrified. But, it will make for a funny story to tell. I was stranded in the desert! haha After we got a new bus, we headed one to Qumran. I know you are wondering what this is. Have you ever heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls? Well, this is the area of the caves where those amazing scrolls were found! It was really cool to be able to look up at the mountain and see all the caves where these scrolls were stored and discovered. We also got to see the remains of the city and where they might have written them.

Cave #4

Caves

City

Replica of Dead Sea Scrolls

Caves

Replica pots where they were found

After lunch, we headed to the infamous Dead Sea. I was so excited to swim in the Dead Sea. It had been a dream of mine since I was a child. It was nothing like I ever expected. Of course I got to float. That was super cool. It felt like I had a life jacket on and I could not keep my feet on the bottom, but it burned worse than anything I could ever imagine. You may not realize it, but daily you may have little cuts on your body that you don't notice. They come out in full flame when you get in the Dead Sea. I thought my body was on fire but, it was a check off on my bucket list.

Our final stop of the day was to the biblical city of Jericho. I am sure you remember the Old Testament story about the men marching around the city ten times, blowing trumpets and all the walls of the city fell down. Well, it looked exactly the same. It was a giant dirt mound. But, recently archaeologists have discovered what they believe was a tower from the city wall. How cool is that?! We also got to see the mountain where Jesus was tempted Satan. It was a pretty awesome day.

Jericho

Mount of Temptation

Tower