Masada! You can see the steep, treacherous, easily-defended “Serpentine Track” or Snake Trail” winding up the side of the mesa.
On Wednesday we went to Masada, the famous mountaintop fortress on the shores of the Dead Sea. This has been a “must-see” for us from the earliest days of planning our trip–I knew that I needed to see Masada, even more than the Mediterranean or the Red Sea or even some of the Jerusalem sites.
Masada is a high plateau or mesa that is isolated by cliffs on all sides–1300 ft high on the eastern face, 300 ft on the western side–that is geologically a “horst”, a fault-block ridge bounded by basins caused by extension. Of course, the Dead Sea is sitting in a rift valley, where the earth is pulling apart. It’s fun to see, because Utah and Nevada are also in an extension zone, and have horst (mountain ranges, like the Wasatch Mountains) and grabens (valleys, like Utah and Salt Lake valleys).
At 8:52am, 1600 ft above sea levelAt 9:27am, 1270 feet BELOW sea level.
Herod, the great builder, built two palaces and a large fortress there between 37 – 31 BC. Apparently, he planned to retreat there in case of revolt. He liked his luxuries, and among the remains of the buildings are a swimming pool, expansive bathhouse, and many lovely reception rooms.
Josephus, the Jewish Roman historian, writes of the last battle of the First Jewish Revolt from 73-74 AD, where less than a thousand rebels spent a year fighting off a siege by an estimated 15000 Romans. According to Josephus, the Sicarii rebels chose to commit mass suicide instead of becoming Roman slaves at the end of the siege.
As a fortress, Masada is well-situated. The high cliffs could be climbed only by the treacherous Serpentine Track, with many switchbacks and absolutely no cover. A few men, armed with boulders, could easily defend the entire mountaintop.
Inside the visitor’s center, a model recreation of Masada.The Romans knew they couldn’t take the mountain fortress by going up the Serpentine Track, so they literally built their own siege ramp up the other side. The arrow is pointing to the man-made ramp.LaDonna teaching us all about Masada, King Herod, the Sicarii, and the Romans.This is definitely LaDonna’s wheelhouse. She has wanted to come to Masada forever. I’m glad we are here with her!
We took the cable car to the top of Masada from the Visitor Center. The top is amazing, confusing, and pretty much an archeologist’s dream come true. And hot.LaDonna and Em, waiting for the cable car to take us to the top. Most of us aren’t physically capable of hiking the serpentine path, and anyway, it closed at 9am just after we arrived because of the heat. Oddly, the national park doesn’t want to deal with heat-stroke and fainting tourists. Not that it stopped people from opening the gates and starting the hike anyway. Kinda foolish. Yummy and Zee, with Masada in the background.Hebs my Hebs. Giro the Great, waiting for the cable car, of which they were not a fan. Eva!My love and me, Masada and the Snake Path in the background.Returning cable car. Masada was more crowded than many of the places we’ve been, but it certainly wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Returning cable car. Masada was more crowded than many of the places we’ve been, but it certainly wasn’t as bad as it could have been. LaDonna, on the summit of Masada. Dead Sea in the background.Gee, Masada, Dead Sea and Jordan in the background.Eva, summit of Masada, with the Dead Sea and Jordan in the background.Gee and Bradley. Quite a little bit of the ruins had wheelchair accessibility, though not all. The heat was pretty intense, even at 10am and with a “cold” front moving through. Bradley stayed with Gee and I stayed with Eva for the first 2/3s of our visit; then they met up and I went adventuring with Hebs and Yum and, at the end, Zee.Lovely ruins, with the giant Roman camp in the background. (Square in middle distance, somewhat cut off by the foreground mountain slope.)Columbarium or dovecote. My Em really loved these places–there were at least three on the mount. The doves were used as food and a source of fertilizer.The Dead Sea, framed by ruins on the western edge of Masada.Hebs and Yummy. Apparently, Yummy hugs Hebs, but he doesn’t hug back. Then when she steps away, he hugs himself and says she missed. It’s hilarious.I love the black explanatory lines! Everything below the line was originally standing before the archeologist came in. Sometimes it was so far up on the wall, it was amazing to think of the ruins lasting millennia. View from Masada, Dead Sea drying pools in the distance.Wadi Masada, with the marl (lake deposited) badlands in the middle distance. Herodian bathhouse mosaics. They were so intricate and still had fairly bright colors, it was incredible to think they lasted 2000 years. Bathhouse walkway.More mosiacs from Herod’s bathhouse. His palace was stunning. And on a really high mesa. Such an odd place to build a non-fortress palace.See how high the walls remained standing?Byzantium church mosaics. Not as intricate or beautiful, but still cool. And I walked on them, just like the monks who retreated up here during the 5th and 6th century.Their chapel was decorated with broken pottery pieces.The decorative broken potteryHebs, Byzantium chapel, MasadaMore mosaics (I just can’t help myself!) These are in the Byzantium church.Roman siege ramp!Pathway to the terraces in Herod’s North Palace. These are NOT handicap accessible. Hebs, Yum, Zee and I went and explored them. There was a fabulous echo along this path–we loved shouting “ECHO” (cause we’re boring like that) and hearing the return.More ruins, Herod’s Northern Palace, Masada.One of the fabled cisterns. According to legend, the Jewish rebels chose to die by suicide rather than be made slaves to the Romans. A few women and children hid in one of the cisterns as the Romans approached with their battering ram up the siege ramp, and chose not to die.
Whether this legend is true or not is a matter of some controversy. The bodies of the Zealots have not been found, and it doesn’t seem likely that the Romans would have carted them away after destroying the mountain fortress. But archeologists have found “lots”–names of people inscribed on small pottery shards, which seems to go with the legend that the men chose lots to decide who was going to kill the men after they killed their families. So who knows? Frescos on the plaster of the lower reception terrace. These are replicas, because the originals were basically being loved to death.Reception room, lower terrace. These were gorgeous, amazing rooms with stunning views. If I had to live in the past, I’d like to be a rich Roman citizen–they had a pretty good lifestyle. Frescos and decorations, lower terrace. The Roman Camp! There were ten surrounding the fortress mountain, but this was biggest and the main camp.I love Roman ruins–they were endlessly clever. These are the remains of the hypocaust–a way of forcing hot air beneath the floors to warm them. Hard to imagine it being cold up there on Masada, but I’m sure in the winter it is a different experience!Yummy and Hebs, Gatehouse, Masada. Shade is WONDERFUL.Eva and Zee.Gee, Bradley, Em, LaDonna. These two crack me up on the regular. Did I mention it was hot? The red face isn’t sunburn, though–I’ve managed thus far to avoid burning. Details about the Masada Cable Car. We were above sea level!There is a museum/museum-experience at the Visitors Center. It was SUPER dark–as in the light level, not in the subject material. It really grew on me as I went through it twice (once quickly on my own, once with the family). It was lit with spotlights and had life-sized statues. For a moment, when I first walked in, blinded by the change in light, I though the room was super crowded. Of course my children had to pose with the statues. Hebs and Zee are helping Herod’s architects. Building mosaics.Hebs helping build the columns.Chatting with Gandalf.
By the time we left Masada, it was around 1:30. We thought we’d eat in Ein Gedi, and then go to Ein Gedi Beach (reputed, at least by our guidebook published in 2019) to be the best free beach on the Dead Sea. This…did not work the way we were hoping.
Turns out the only restaurant in Ein Gedi was closed until 6pm. The snack shop at the Ein Gedi National Park was sparse (there were some sandwiches, though!). The beach was unfindable–the place where Google Maps told us to turn literally did not exist. We were confused, hot, and hungry.
We drove back to the small town of Ein Gedi and Bradley asked at the reception desk of the hotel–how do we get to the beach? At the same time, I had enough cell coverage (I linked to Em’s hotspot) to search the Ein Gedi Public Beach. So, at the same time, both Bradley and I discovered that in January of 2020, the entire Ein Gedi beach area fell into a sinkhole.
Well. That will close a beach pretty quick there.
The very nice woman at the hotel recommended we drive back south to Ein Bokek, as that was the closest nice beach not in the West Bank. There are several large hotels, stores, malls, and restaurants there, as well. We had to drive back that way to get to back to Jerusalem, so we were game.
We finally found the Dead Sea! Here are Yummy, Hebs, and Zee floating in the hypersaline water. It was super warm (warmer than bathwater, really), and a little unpleasantly oily? greasy? something weird, at any rate. But SUCH a cool sensation. Maybe it was my imagination (definitely possible), but while wading through the water, it felt heavier or more viscous. Tons of little salt balls in the shallows (they have little entries with ramps to help you in and out.)Salt balls from the shallow shoreline of the Dead Sea. I imagine the wave action on the shallow seafloor creates these little balls of salt crystals.Hebs showing me how it’s done. I nearly capsized the first time I tried to float. You aren’t supposed to get your face in the water, and if you swallow any water, you are told to get medical aid immediately. But have fun!LaDonna floating in the Dead Sea.I was the only one with a waterproof camera bag, so this is one of two pictures I have of me. But I’m practically sitting on the water. Like a genie. Hello, other picture. So attractive.Zee helping Eva figure out the floating thing. It’s more complicated than you might think! You can just barely see Bradley and Em in the background–Em chose not to swim, and I didn’t get any pictures of Bradley. Eva floating in the Dead Sea.Yummy trying not to flop over.The Dead Sea. It is so deceptive–it looks so cool and refreshing. All lies!Gee holding one of the giant salt ballsThis kid! Swimming in the Dead Sea was apparently the BEST thing every for Gee, because nobody could really use their legs–which is an everyday swimming experience for Gee. They were a pro, and LOVED it.Gee with strangers in the background. 🙂Gee, showing off.Gee had so much fun, I couldn’t resist a million pictures of them.Selfie!The wonderful Yum.We were starving when we were done cleaning up after the Dead Sea Float. So we found a hamburger joint nearby. Here, Hebs is demonstrating the Daniel-san stance. Zee is about to hop up and pose for dominance.The boys’ shadows. Ein Bokek, Dead Sea.Zee’s giant chicken sandwich. It was delicious. You don’t see mine (a beef-and-lamb burger, medium, with the most amazing aioli sauce) because I ate it so fast. It was SO good. We highly recommend Agadir Burger. 🙂Though I won’t be able to visit Jordan on this trip, my phone did connect to a Jordanian cell tower!
It was an exhausting day, both physically and emotionally (see previous post), but we did it! We were so tired and happy that we succeeded in marking two major things off our lists–Masada and Dead Sea.
