Masada and the Dead Sea, Ashod, Israel

On this trip we have been to the highest point on earth, Everest 8848 metres, and now the lowest point on earth, the Dead Sea at 423 metres below sea level.  It’s a bit hard to get your head around that...I know.  The Dead Sea lies between Jordan and Israel and it’s a very sad fact that due to irrigation along the Jordan River (the source of the sea) the Dead Sea level has been dropping by a metre a year.  Where there were once lovely beaches there are now giant sink holes and the water in the Dead Sea is so salty that it is hard to put your foot down to walk through the water into the sea.
Anyway, I should start at the beginning....

Today we docked at Ashod, Israel and the tour we chose was Masada and the Dead Sea. We didn’t know very much about Masada before the tour but believe me, after having a passionate tour guide we probably know more about Masada than the Israeli’s!
It took almost 2.5 hours to arrive at Masada after a couple of toilet stops.  The first city we passed was Jerusalem, that we are not visiting as three days here are just not enough.

 The first comment we made to each other was how green and fertile the country looked after visiting countries over the past couple of weeks that are mostly sand. Our guide explained that they had just had unseasonal rain that made it look lusher than it usually is at this time of the year.  Also, Israel appears to be so much more cosmopolitan (apart from Dubai and Abu Dhabi that are OTT).  Having said that it wasn’t long before we came across bedouin camps with the obligatory sheep, goats and camels.  Our guide said the the Israeli government wanted to settle the Bedouin's in better accommodation but they turned them down flatly.  They love their life.

Our first glimpse of the Dead Sea didn’t take long and in fact we followed along the coast line all the way to Masada.

Masada. What a mind blowing place that is. It has such an incredible history and you can read about it here, but to briefly summarise it Masada is an ancient fortress built high above the Dead Sea. It is 450 metres high, 650 metres long and 300 metres wide. It is thought that King Herod (37BC - 4BC) built Masada as a refuge against his enemies and used it as his winter palace.  It was extremely lavish as you can see by the photos of the replicas.  After the death of Herod the Romans had a garrison placed here and then the Jews conquered the Romans and took over Masada.  It lay uninhabited for quite a while before a group of rebels (Essenes and Samaritans) moved in. The group was about 960.  In about 73 or 74AD the Romans once again took an army of 8000 and over a few months using a ramp of earth and wooden supports on a natural slope they used a tower with a battering ram to smash down the wall around Masada.  The Jewish rebels knew that they were going to be beaten so they committed a mass suicide. Two women and five children survived to tell the story.
The archeologists are still unearthing Massada and you can see a black line running around the exposed walls.  Below the line is original and above the line is where it has been restored. With the building of the chairlift Masada has now become accessible to the tourists and of them there is many. Previously you hard to mark the journey along the “snake path” that winds its way up the steep mountain.

After Masada it was back to a local resort for a buffet lunch and swim in the Dead Sea. I didn’t swim but Philip did. I was working on my needlepoint...

It was a long day and our tour bus was the last to arrive back to Port. The staff wait at the bottom of the gangway with a glass of champagne for the last tour bus back and I think we deserved it....