Across to Israel and the Dead Sea area

  Ein Bokek, Israel
Wednesday, July 2, 2008

We ran a little late this morning. We weren't out by the curb with our luggage until after 6:30, in stead of 6:15 as we had planned. But Abu Omar, our driver, had overslept (we have kept him very busy these past days) and didn't arrive until nearly 7:00. We drove to the outskirts of Aqaba to the Wadi Araba border crossing. We noticed that some of the Jordanian border guards were wearing US military helmets and driving Humvees.  We said goodbye to Abu Omar and pulled our luggage into the border crossing security area.
 
Formalities on the Jordanian side went quickly and smoothly. As David Baker and I paid the 5 Dinars to purchase the exit tax passport stamps for each member of our party, one official asked where we were from, to which we said the USA. He smiled broadly and said "Have no fear the Americans are here!" and then laughed in a relaxed and friendly way.  Then he told David Baker and me with a conspiratorial grin "You are supposed to say 'no mess no fuss, leave it to us!'" It would have been interesting to explore that conversation further, but when it comes to border crossings both Dave's and my reflexes are to clear the area as quickly as possible, which we did.
 
We pulled our luggage 100 meters or so to the Israeli side. We showed our passports, and went through a security check, where our suitcases went through a scanner. Then we proceeded to immigration where our passports were stamped with 3 month visas. We didn't seem worth a customs check, I supposed, we just walked on by, and met our guide, named Doreen, who was waiting for us just after customs. We loaded out mountain of luggage into the 16 place mini-bus (some ended up in the isle), and started north through the Arava desert valley, which runs below the Negev desert plateau to the west of where we drove.
 
After several hours of driving (and one restroom stop) we came to the lower part of the Dead Sea. Because of the serious need for water in this part of the world, the Dead Sea level has noticeably lowered, and has separated into an upper, deep section, and a lower shallow section which is mostly evaporation pools used to extract the minerals from the water. Normal ocean water is about 6 percent salt, the water of the Dead Sea is 1/3 minerals, many of which have commercial value.  Water is now pumped from the upper part of the Sea through canals, over land, to the shallow lower part where it can be processed.  We stopped briefly to look at a small mountain of salt along the shore of the Sea. One vertical pillar-like figure was pointed out as being (or more properly, representing) Lot's wife. This is the area where Sodom and Gomorrah used to be, and there is certainly plenty of salt about, why not this particular pillar?
 
As we left the bus to take photos, we were struck by the extreme heat and humidity at the Dead Sea, the lowest part of our whole planet. We were not slow to regain the air conditioned interior of the bus.
 
Around the southernmost part of the upper section of the Sea, we came to the ruins of Herod's mountaintop palace at Masada. This place became famous, not so much for Herod, but for the Jewish zealots who held out for years here against the Romans during the Jewish rebellion of the 60s and 70s AD and who finally committed suicide rather than submit to slavery under the Romans.

Looking toward the Dead Sea from Masada

We took the cable gondola up the mountainside and had a 90 minute visit of the palace area. The visit included models of the whole installation to help us get our bearings, the store houses

Store rooms near Herod's palace in Masada

, and the ruins of Herod's palace itself. We also saw cisterns (very important in the arid climate), a synagogue installed by the zealots and the area where potsherds bearing names were found, possible the site where lots were draws to decide who would be responsible for dispatching the defenders before killing themselves to avoid falling into the hands of the Romans. The Romans has spent many months builing a great seige ramp up the mountain side so that the walls could be breached and the forteress taken.  The Jews inside saw the ramp progress and knew the end had arrived when a hole was punched in the wall with a battering ram.

What's left of the Roman ramp at Masada

That prompted their decision to kill themselves rather than be taken alive. As we sat near the spot where the shards were found, Doreen read a portion of the speech that, according to the historian Jospehus, Eleazar Ben-Yari, the leader of the zealots, gave just before their deaths. Here is part of it:
 
"We were the very first that revolted from them, and we are the last that fight against them; and I cannot but esteem it as a favor that God has granted us, that it is still in our power to die bravely, and in a state of freedom, which hath not been the case of others, who were conquered unexpectedly. It is very plain that we shall be taken within a day's time, but it is still an eligible thing to die after a glorious manner, together with our dearest friends.
 
"Let our wives die before they are abused, and our children before they have tasted slavery; and after we have slain them, let us bestow that glorious benefit upon one another mutually and preserve ourselves in freedom as an excellent funeral monument for us."
 
Whatever one's interpretation of the rightness or wrongness of what was done, it is altogether a most moving monument to courage and the passion for freedom.

Looking down toward the Roman ramp at Masada

 
From Masada, we drove north to En Gedi, the desert oasis where David took refuge from Saul who sought his life. We read the passage in 1 Samuel 24 where Saul searched for David at En Gedi and where David cut off part of Saul's robe in a cave. There are many caves in the rocks evident today. We saw an ibex, a small mountain goat, cross our path as we walked up to the springs. Such goats are mentioned in that same passage in Samuel.
 
It is a steep, though not a long, climb up the springs, but it was over 100 degrees F and quite humid due to our proximity to the Dead Sea. At the top we passed a series of pools, places where David and his men would have drunk and bathed 3000 years ago, on the way to the highest fall of all, now called David's waterfall.

The volunteers at the highest falls at En Gedi

  We found one beautiful pool with no swimmers present and for half an hour our group enjoyed uninterrupted the coolness of the air and the flowing water (and played dunking games with each other). The sounds of laughter and delight we heard today have no doubt been heard here for as long as people have known of this oasis.

In a high pool at En Gedi

 
Finally it was time to leave, so we walked back down, dried off and boarded the bus for the trip back south to our hotel at Ein Bokek on the shores of the Dead Sea.  We checked in, got our luggage to our rooms and settled in a bit. Then, about an hour after our arrival, we all met in our swim gear and walked down to the Sea we had been observing most of the day. At the beach we walked into the very warm water and had the strange experience of floating very high. One cannot sink in the Dead Sea. The high mineral content makes every nick and cut in the skin sting, and it can actually irritate any sensitive skin, even unbroken.  We took some photos and laughed at the sulfury smell, and strange oily sensation it creates on the skin.

floating in the Dead Sea

After bathing in the Dead Sea one must rinse generously which we did in the beach showers, before heading back up the hill to the hotel.

We had a delicious dinner at the hotel buffet. We had worked up quite an appetite with all our hiking in the heat and humidity. We took some time to discuss the visits we'll make tomorrow, and got our schedule set. Wakeup call in the morning at 6:30, luggage outside our room doors at 7:00 for a 7:45 departure.