Day 3 - Off to the desert
Trip Start
Mar 21, 2008
1
3
15
Trip End
Apr 05, 2008
Dead Sea Region,
Dead Sea Region,
Israel
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Hey, the desert's more exciting than you may think! Not only does the sand desert of Judea consist of plenty of just that, but the rocky desert of the Negev offers incredible colours and formations to feast the eye on. Then there's Oases and date palm plantations, lots of Bedouins on donkeys, and wild camels. How about the Dead Sea thrown in for good measure? Or the decisive monument to Jewish resistance and national pride: the Masada. So grab yourself a cuppa and read on!
The Masada is the Jewish equivalent to that one Gallic village in the Asterix comics. It's an impenetrable mountain fortress built by King Herod the Great to house a three-story palace including a bath house (of all things!) in the most bleak and inhuman wilderness of the desert
The Masada, Dead Sea and Jordanian Mountains
. But the views over the Dead Sea and the rift valley to Jordan are breathtaking. During Roman occupation, a bunch of Jewish hardcore extremist rebels held out atop the fortress despite a 2-year large-scale Roman siege. They may not have had a magic potion like Asterix, but they had plenty of supplies and water gathered in large underground cisterns. The Romans eventually piled up a gigantic ramp of rubble over which they finally breached the walls only to find that the Jews had committed mass suicide to evade the shame of Roman slavery. One Israeli slogan is "There will not be a second Masada" and it used to be custom for new army recruits to be sworn in at Masada. Next stop was the Dead Sea. That's truly dead - only the hardiest plant and animal life can exist on its salty desert shores. And it may be extinct soon as well: through drainage of its only major tributary, the Jordan River, its water level has been sinking for decades. There are , in fact, now two Dead Seas.
A few facts to about the Dead Sea:
- Floating in it is indeed most peculiar. Flotation is so strong that it's difficult to stand up once you're afloat.
- The salt in it tastes shite. Tried a tomato with it - uuurgh!
The Masada desert fortress
No surprise really if you see what minerals they gather out of it (potash, sulphur, etc). I guess that's why the water is green.- It is indeed good for your skin. But wash the salt off well, or you'll be itching for days.
- The water's lukewarm - bathtub styley.
- But don't splash around in glee: if you get the water in your eyes you won't be smiling for a very long time...
- You don't get sunburn there. And that's because it's so far below sea level that the extra bit of atmosphere filters out pretty much anything ultraviolet.
Cool, huh? It is indeed a wacky little place to go for a dip.
