Qumran, Messada, Eilat

Trip Start Feb 10, 2005
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Trip End Jan 05, 2006


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Friday, November 4, 2005

The second day of the trip, we crossed over to Qumran (where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered), at the north end of the Dead Sea; then down to infamous fortress of Masada, near the south of the Dead Sea; then finally to the southern-most point of Israel, the Vegas-like resort town of Eilat.

ABOUT MESADA

Masada is a half-kilometre high mountain top fortress built by King Herod the Great, a summer retreat for the paranoid Judean king. In 70 AD when the Roman Empire destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem, 960 Jewish zealots took refuge on Mesada. The Romans encircled the mountain, but it was practically impregnable. The zealots held out for 3 years, but finally the Romans built a massive seige ramp up the side of the mountain. When it became clear that the Romans would finally succeed, the Jews committed mass suicide rather than submit to the Romans, except for a few left to tell the story. Today, it is a national park and the story of Masada runs deep in the Iraeli psyche. Isreali soldiers take their oath on the mountain: "Masada shall not fall again."
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