Ein Gedi/The Dead Sea/And Some Nuns

My friends and I wanted to visit a spot at the dead sea that was picturesque and absolutely covered over by calcified salt, like this:

Photo from this amazing photographer: http://www.pbase.com/doronnissim/image/109347085

Everyone said the place to see that was at Ein Gedi, which was only about 45 minutes from Masada. Turns out we were two weeks too early, or a season minus two weeks too late. This happens at the Dead sea when the seasons change. Did you know that? I only learned it from a local massage therapist who saw me walking along the Dead Sea as my friends were swimming, struck up a conversation with me and then proposed marriage to me. I politely declined. He then proceeded to try to get me to meet him at the same spot in 5 years so we could get married. I wonder how many blonde women over the years he's made a similar proposal to? Can't you just picture it? On his list of daily goals (I decided he has one of those): Take a walk at the Dead Sea. Find a blonde woman. Propose marriage. Repeat next day. Should pan out in about five years.

Who knows, maybe one of these days it'll work out for him.

The closest thing to all of that lovely, white saltiness I could find was this one, solitary salt-crusted rock:

It is suprisingly difficult to find a place to bathe in the Dead Sea in Israel. Seriously. On the Jordanian side, there are day-use resorts in abundance that are very nice. But in Israel, there really are not. We found one cluster of high-rise hotels in one spot. Nearer to Ein Gedi there was a day spa, and a pay-for-use parking lot with a locker room, showers and "beach" access. (There was no beach, BTW. Just a rocky area after a very, very slippery hill you must somehow slip down and a metal railing that will leave red rust marks all over your hands if you touch because the salt in the air has corroded it.) If you want a proper beach day at the Dead Sea, go to Jordan. Or go for a full spa day at Ein Gedi spa. We didn't really care to spend our money or time there, so we skipped it.

 And just because it's so cool, here is a picture of some nuns bathing in the Dead Sea:

The Details:
For a quick dip in the Dead Sea in Israel, find the public pay-per-use parking lot and pay facilities at Ein Gedi.

DO NOT: Get the water in your eyes.
Do not: Shave anything within a day of going into the Dead Sea. The salt will burn every cut, scrape and nick you've got.

Do: Hydrate. This area will literally suck the moisture right out of you. Hydrate often.
Do: Shower off after your dip in the Dead Sea.
 

Masada

Eventually, after much driving around in circles, a few extra hours on the road, and a bit of scrambling, my friends and I actually made it to Masada. It was well worth the effort. Masada is easily one of Israel's most fascinating sites. Today it stands as a point of national pride. Soldiers make the trek up to Masada each year and schoolchildren and teenagers are brought here to learn about Israeli history and heritage.

History (From Wikipedia)

Almost all historical information about Masada comes from the 1st-century Jewish Roman historian Josephus. The site was first fortified by Alexander Jannaeus in the first century BCE.^[2] Herod the Great captured it in the power-struggle that followed the death of father Antipater.^[2] It survived the siege of the Parthian king Antigonus.^[2] In 66 CE, a group of Jewish rebels, the Sicarii, overcame the Roman garrison of Masada with the aid of a ruse.^[2] After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, additional members of the Sicarii fled Jerusalem and settled on the mountaintop.^[2] According to Josephus, the Sicarii were an extremist Jewish splinter group antagonistic to a larger grouping of Jews referred to as the Zealots, who carried the main burden of the rebellion. According to Josephus, the Sicarii based at Masada raided nearby Jewish villages including Ein Gedi, where they massacred 700 women and children.^[2]
In 73 CE, the Roman governor of Iudaea Lucius Flavius Silva headed the Roman legion X Fretensis and laid siege to Masada.^[2] The Roman legion surrounded Masada, and built a circumvallation wall and then a siege embankment against the western face of the plateau.^[2]
According to Dan Gill,^[3] geological investigations in the early 1990s confirmed earlier observations that the 375-foot (114 m) high assault ramp consisted mostly of a natural spur of bedrock. The ramp was complete in the spring of 73, after probably two to three months of siege, allowing the Romans to finally breach the wall of the fortress with a battering ram on April 16.^[4] Romans took the X Legion and a number of auxiliary units and Jewish prisoner of war, totaling some 15.000 troops in order to crush Jewish resistance at Masada. A giant siege tower with a battering ram was constructed and moved laboriously up the completed ramp. The walls of the fortress were breached in 73 CE,^[5] According to Josephus, when Roman troops entered the fortress, they discovered that its 960 inhabitants had set all the buildings but the food storerooms ablaze and committed mass suicide/killed each other. Josephus wrote of two stirring speeches that the Sicari leader had made to convince his fellows to kill themselves.^[2] Only two women and five children were found alive.^[2]
The year of the siege of Masada may have been 73 or 74 CE.^[6]
Masada was last occupied during the Byzantine period, when a small church was established at the site.^[7]

View of the Dead Sea at sunrise from Masada Youth Hostel.

Once upon a time, the Dead Sea was much bigger. Imagine the water stretching nearly to the base of the mountain in the foreground. 

Below: dry valleys and terrain is what remains of the dead sea in the area
surrounding the body of saline water now.

Israeli school children, families, soldiers and tourists alike make the crazy-steep 
climb to the ruins of the ancient hilltop city.

If you're not into hiking you can take the tram. It takes under five minutes. (And trust me, unless you're really into hiking or REALLY want to hike this mountain, don't do it! I love to hike and this was crazy. Even the hike down is grueling.)

A model of Herod's palace (bottom) and a portion of the city walls (top) built on Masada.

The path leading around the backside of the mountain to Herod's Palace. I don't think Herod suffered from Vertigo or it would have been impossible for him to hang out in his palace at Masada. 

 The square is the outline of one of the Roman encampments from the siege of Masada.

The ruins of Herod's palace. Stunning view.

The Breakdown

Get there: Ideally, rent a car or go with a tour. If you have time and patience, take a public bus from Jerusalem. It is not recommended that you try the bus route in the summer as you'll likely spend long hours in the sun/heat waiting for the bus, which will not run "on time."

Allow: Half day if taking the tram both ways. Full day if hiking either way. And you ought to stay in the Youth Hostel at Masada as it is the only accommodations within 30-45 minutes.

Stay: Israel Youth Hostel. Good prices, nice rooms, GREAT buffet breakfast with western and eastern options, as well as the option to pack a sandwich lunch to take with you for your trip to Masada. (NB: Foam mattresses are a bit thin, but the building and facilities are nearly brand new.)

Book online, or try your luck at last-minute reservations like my group did (We were very lucky, it was the off-season, during a war and there was availability. However, we were overcharged by the gentleman at the front desk, who charged us each the single rate for a triple-share room... Unintentionally?)

Cost: If memory servers correctly, you pay only to ride the tram, 35NIS each way (70 return) (around $17US).

Bring: WATER. And plenty of it. There is a fountain and restrooms on top of the mountain, but the terrain is dry, dusty and salty. You'll be doing a lot of walking. Bring water. Bring Lunch. Bring Lunch.

Not very helpful official Website: http://masada.org.il/masada-national-park

The Dead Sea/And the Radio

Twice in the holy land, my small group of travelers and dared to rent a car. Twice, we took our lives into our hands and faced middle-eastern drivers head-on (sometimes literally), venturing out of the bounds of Jerusalem. I was our driver.

And I'm rather proud of the fact that not one of the ridiculous amount of bumps, scratches, scrapes and other damage to our cars was caused by yours truly. Not bad for the girl who's boss said she was going to total her rental car while on a work assignment in NYC. (Not a scratch on that one either, thankyouverymuch!) In fact, I came to think of myself as a reincarnated Israeli driver, so suited was my own personal driving style to their crazy no-boundaries and no-personal-space-existsts way of driving.

I'm not sure I should be so proud. But I am.

Many of the more than 1,500 kilmeters I drove while in Israel were spent alongside the Dead Sea. Sometimes the highway was high and twisty, sometimes low and desert-ous. There were spots where you could see an older version of the same highway, now obsolete and growing back into the unforgiving terrain, sinking lower and lower into the salty, rich earth. There were segments covered in fields of Palm trees, being farmed for harvest and transplantation to other places in the region. The stretches of the sea furthest (NORTH?) are divided into slices by large mounds of salt. Long, white salt walls allow harvesting of minerals for nearby factories.

Israel is a place I would have LOVED to have XM radio. I WISH I'd had XM. Or Satellite. Or a stereo cord to plug my iPhone into the car stereo with. Because, my friends, driving 1500 miles with only local radio stations full of The Call to Prayer, Arabic news (possibly?), some kind of angry preaching in Arabic (again, ?), miles of static, and sometimes, a classical station. (Hallelujah! And boy oh boy am I ever grateful to my 6th grade teacher, Mr. LaRue for teaching me to love classical music!)

So amidst the long lengths of radio silence, mostly just along the Dead Sea, my mind created it's own soundtrack each of the four times we drove the length of that body of salt water. Every time that beautifully blue/green deathly saline oasis appeared, The Lumineers began to play their perfectly appropriately named song.

"Like the Dead Sea/You told me I was like the Dead Sea/You'll never sink when you are with me/Oh, Lord, like the Dead Sea
Whoa, I'm like the Dead Sea/The finest words you ever said to me/Honey can't you see/I was born to be, be your Dead Sea"

Funny how songs can make certain memories really come alive.

Israel: A Quick Photo Update

In pictures (and a few words), here are a few of things I've been up to lately in Israel, in no particular order:

Visiting the Western (Wailing Wall)

Climbing lots and lots of stairs to get to my room in the Convent I'm staying at... 

this place is huge and has many, many places to get lost in!

Exploring Temple Mount (and finding the proper way into Temple Mount... Oy Vey!)

Finding the "Chuck Norris Approved" places to drink fresh pomegranate juice. 

 Eating a very American Thanksgiving feast of Schwarma and Falafel... *snrk*

Waking up to this view of the Dead Sea from our hostel at the base of Masada.

Viewing the Garden Tomb. 

Visiting the Dead Sea.