Homework for the Holy Land: Day 6: God Is On Our Side (until He isn't)

From chatting with my fellow travelers, yesterday was an especially emotional day for many of them.  I'm not sure our tour guide designed it this way, but today was more of an infotainment day and for that I believe we all are most appreciative.

We drove south from Jerusalem to Masada, a well preserved site in the mountains by the Dead Sea.  On our way we saw a couple Israeli communities that the rest of the world refers to as settlements.  Israeli settlements are civilian communities inhabited by Israeli citizens, almost exclusively of Jewish ethnicity, built on lands occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.  Seeing places that continue to be contentious to the Israeli and Palestinians feels surreal to me.  We also saw Bedouin encampments which look very much like what you might imagine a homeless encampment looks like.  Kind of a head scratcher, I guess.

Perhaps you're familiar with the story of Masada; long story short, on the order King Herod, in the year 72, the Romans besieged Masada and succeeded in reaching the steep fortress after constructing a huge earthen ramp on its western side. In the year 73, the 960 Jewish zealots living at the top chose to commit suicide rather than to fall into the hands of the Romans alive.  It is now one of the greatest archaeological sites in Israel.  Click here to read more about it.  

A word or two about Herod: according to Lorne, our guide, this king was an engineering genius.  He was also not the nicest person in the world.  You're perhaps familiar with the Bible story about the slaying of the innocents--that was Herod.  He executed several members of his family, including his first wife.  Which leads me to the thread that runs throughout almost every historical and Biblical story we've heard while we've been here: for centuries predating Christianity and continuing to this day, people have invoked the name of God (or in the case of pagans, one or more of their gods) as the justification for horrific acts of violence and killing against those with whom they did not agree; who crossed them in one way or another; who refused to bow down to them, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.  They claim--and there is no scientific evidence to support the claim--that God is on their side.  Until the next crowd comes in with the same claim, and then God isn't on their side so much anymore.  Man's inhumanity to man has always hurt my heart and this land of Israel is soaked in it.  

The entrance to Masada National Park.

Herod had the palace atop the Masada mesa built so that it literally hung off the cliff.

A Roman soldier encampment from which the assault against Masada was probably launched.  I believe I've previously mentioned that archeologists don't always completely dig or uncover a site after its discovery.  There are many reasons for this; one is that the act of digging itself destroys the very artifacts they are trying to preserve.  This is an example of a site they haven't completely uncovered.

To conduct the siege of Masada, the Romans first built a ramp (above).  They then rolled up the battering ram and slammed it against the walls of the encampment.  Sometimes the structure to be defended had one wall, and then the space between the wall built for defense and the actual structure was filled in with dirt and rocks.  Parts of this area could be emptied and people might live there, hence the expression living between the walls.

Herod's palace and the structures needed to support him and all  the others who lived on the palace grounds were built on top of a mesa.  Food stuffs could be brought up and stored, but not water.  The closest source of water was the Dead Sea.  And, they're in the desert.  Herod figured out a system of aqueducts that would catch rainwater, then store it in cisterns (that's what the holes in the rock face are).

From Masada we moved on to Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in a cave between 1947 and 1956. 

The mountains in this area are covered with caves. 

This is the cave where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered.

We ended the day at the Dead Sea, the lowest place on earth, 1412 feet below sea level.  This was SO MUCH FUN!  

The bottom of the sea is slippery and slimy as it is covered with mud.  Getting into the water was a little nerve wracking as it was very difficult to maintain my balance.  At knee height, I decided just to sit down and see if, as advertised, I would float.  I did!  After floating around for awhile (my friend Bill Smith offered to race me to Jordan, the opposite shore), I thought I'd give the famous Dead Sea mud a try.  I reached down to the bottom and pulled up a large chunk of beautifully marbled mud.  

Here I'm rubbing it on.  It feels really nice and it doesn't smell.  It's grey/green in color.  You're supposed to climb out, let it dry for about 10 minutes, then wash it off.  I just mudded up, then rinsed.  Thanks to My Friend Jeanie™ for taking these pictures.

Jordanian bunkers leftover from a previous Arab-Israeli conflict line the road to the beach.  A couple years ago artists painted them.  

A beautiful sunset capped yet another amazing day.

The Google tells me there are at least 35 synonyms for the word amazing. Meld them together and they still couldn't describe what this experience has been like.  2 more days to go.