Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Day 6: Masada and Dead Sea

I booked a day tour to Masada and the Dead Sea with a small tour company that was advised by my hotel, mostly because it was only a short walk away. The tour was surprisingly cheap compared to other tours, about half the price actually, so I was really surprised but didn't say anything. Turns out, when I checked the reviews about this tour company, they only provide the driver and not the tour guide. It was a bit late to find that out because I had already paid them.

The driver picked me up at a bus stop. The van was quite old, and the AC wasn't cold at all. However, the driver was surprisingly great. It was a 2 hr drive to Masada from Jerusalem. On the way, the driver talked about the things we will see, and about the Palestinian situation (most of my Palestinian facts from the Day 5 post came from this guy) because he is an "Arab-Israeli", which is a person who has Israeli ID card, but not all of Israeli's rights. He didn't sound very hateful at all, unlike the guide I had at Bethlehem and Jericho (remember, since Israelis can't enter Palestine, the tour companies had to hire Palestinian guides). In fact, our driver was very straightforward and only told us the facts and nothing more. Basically, this tour works like this: the driver talks about destination while driving and once we arrive, he gave us a certain amount of time to see the place and then we return to the van and then go to the next place. Wasn't exactly what I wanted, but I got what I paid for.

That hole in the middle is where they found the scrolls.
On our way to Masada, we stopped at Qumran, the place where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. We had to buy tickets to get in. Once we entered, there was a theater, but it was still showing something and we only had twenty minutes so we went through the gates and explored the little area. The place was full of old ritual bath houses or something stupid and we all thought that they just found the scrolls buried there and almost missed the cave. The cave was some distance away from all these excavations. Basically, some Bedouins, which are basically Middle Eastern shepherds, went in the cave and found the scrolls. The Dead Sea Scrolls, if you didn't know, are the oldest writings known to contain verses from the Torah. The scrolls are believed to be as old as 2nd century BC. By the way, it's called the Dead Sea Scrolls because the Dead Sea is literally right across from it.
Masada


One part of the The Fortress of Masada
The view from up top.
The hike down. The entrance is that building down there.
After seeing the cave, we went back to the van and continued our journey to Masada. In the car, the driver admitted that Qumran wasn't interesting at all, but did say that Masada will be worth it. Masada is an ancient fortress, built in the 1st century BC by Herod the Great on a mountain in the middle of the Judean desert and right near the Dead Sea. When we arrived, we were given a time of 1.5 hrs and a strong recommendation to go up by cable car and down if we choose. The ride up was quick but once I started the tour, I began to feel the heat. It was 40C (104 F) and very sunny, as you can see, so it was really hot to say the least. I didn't really care about the history or the layout of the fortress to be honest. The place was basically stones (would be much more interesting if I came with a tour guide). However, the view from up top is simply gorgeous. The pictures that I took can't really describe how great the views were because pictures can't make you feel the heat, height, and depth. Anyways, I really only got to see a bit of the place (40 minutes) since I chose not to go down by cable car. Exploring the entire place can take about 3 hrs at least. I had to hike back to the entrance since I didn't chose to buy cable car ticket for my trip down. The hike down took 40 minutes and I completely drained about 1 liter of water on my way down. It was a fun walk actually: very rocky and I had the opportunity to chat with one of the guy from the tour.

When we reach the entrance, I was soaked with my sweat. The driver said that it's good to be hot and tired because now we are going to relax in the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is basically a 10 minute drive away. The beach that we entered was full of tourists and the water was warm and grey. The water wasn't deep and there was smooth mud at the bottom of it. Of course the coolest thing was that you float on the Dead Sea because water is extremely salty. I learned that the hard way when a tiny drop of water went into my eyes and it literally felt like someone poked my eyes with a needle. I also had a taste of it and it was just like putting a spoon of salt in your mouth.

Supposedly, the black mud of the Dead Sea has extraordinary healing powers and cures skin diseases. However, I wasn't very into beauty, so I simply just played with the mud, rub it here and there, and just floated in the sea for about 30 minutes. I was going to be in the Dead Sea in Jordan again (which is literally in the opposite shore of the Dead Sea) so I didn't really spent much time in the water there.
At the Dead Sea. The water was about 30C.

The day ended with a trip to Jericho because Jericho was included in this tour and the Jericho trip I went the day before was unexpected. We were given 30 minutes to see the place and/or eat lunch. I spent most of my time eating lunch and did get to see Jericho from the rooftop of the restaurant. Not very interesting when you have seen the place just the day before. After seeing the Mount of Temptation and the Sycamore tree again, we drove back to Jerusalem. It was a long day really because I got back in my hotel room at 6 pm and very tired. I had to wake up at 5 am the next day to catch a 7 am bus to Eilat to cross over to Jordan so I slept early that day. 





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