Janna's Jerusalem Journies: Masada and the Dead Sea-Bible Study field trip #2 (February 20th 2013)

Our second field trip for Bible study, though it isn't very Biblical, was to Masada and the Dead Sea. Masada is a giant plateau in the southern district of Israel. Herod the Great fortified the city until a group of Jews set up camps all around and eventually took it over. After the destruction of the second temple, more Jews fled to Masada. A few years later Romans sieged it again by building a ramp with bedrock and breaking down the wall. After the Byzantine period, Masada was empty until it was rediscovered in 1842. There is your short history lesson with a bit of help from Wikipedia.

This time we decided to take a bus to Masada where we would hike the treacherous "snake path" to the top. The bus ride was beautiful, especially once we got to the dead sea which we drove along for quite a while.

Our tickets included entrance to the ruins and the little museum in the visitors center. We also bought the audio guide for 5$ more, which was good since things weren't labeled very well. We doused ourselves in sunscreen and headed off to our 45 minute snake path hike up Masada.

It was quite the hike! Thankfully we went in February and it wasn't too hot. It can be very dangerous when it is. We also drank a ton of water. It's just a bunch of rocks and steps. The only time you're in shade is if you're by a wall of rock at just the right angle, OR if you want until the afternoon when the sun has moved. David and Skye sped up the mountain while Veronica and I paced ourselves and Dan was somewhere in between. It was a nice hike, the kind that earns you a gelato or something! Most of the trail had either steps, a carved or a gravel path. Some of the steps were GINORMOUS! we had to really climb up them.

We finally made it to the top and began our little audio tour of the city. A few sites in, we found this great deck area over looking the visitors center. You could see forever! We decided to eat lunch there and had to fight off a few birds from stealing our food.

We continued our audio guide tour, which we were actually doing backwards because we wanted to avoid the people, but the order didn't really matter. There are palaces, churches, bathhouses and even a big water system. There is also a synagogue and big pool. We wandered around and explored. It didn't matter where you looked, the view was breath taking on every side of the plateau.

A couple hours later we made our way back down the snake path. My legs felt like jello after the first hike, so getting down was a little scary at times. Especially when I slipped on a shiny rock and almost fell. THANKFULLY I did not!

Once we got down we did a quick walk through of the tiny museum. It was nicely done, but at the same time it was a little lame. A lot of plastic hollow statues, but they also had a lot of artifacts found on Masada, so those were cool.

We shared a taxi with a couple people and had the driver take us to the free public beach of the Dead Sea. We quickly changed and made our way down the steep hill to the sea. It was extremely rocky and right up next to the steep hill so there wasn't a lot of space. But it was about 4pm by now so it wasn't too crowded.

It was so weird! A little slimy! The rocks were coated with hard crystalized salt so you had to wear sandals or just be very careful. It doesn't seem to matter how many people, books or pamphlets tell you that you'll float no matter how much you weigh or how much you try to fight it, you will float. You just have to see for yourself. Cautiously we got in and lo and behold, we all floated. In fact, it was extremely hard to stand once you were in at your waist. You just have to lounge in it. It's really cool! I even flipped to my stomach involuntarily a few times, and rolling back over was quite difficult. Skye and Dan magically turned into 10 year old boys skipping rocks, and lifting large rocks and carrying them "out to sea" just to drop them in another place. Skye paid for that one with tiny little cuts on his hands that then filled with salt! But it was a lot of fun! We goofed off and messed around for about 20 to 30 minutes even though the recommended time to stay in the water is only 15 minutes.

Unfortunately we weren't on the beach that has the mineral-rich mud. On that beach you cover your skin with the mud then rinse it off, it's supposed to be very good for you. I hope to go back to do the mud sometime before we leave. But either way, we had a great time, and it felt great to be in water after that long hard hike!

We waited for a bus for about 30 minutes to an hour, not actually knowing if one would come or not. One finally showed up and we headed back to Jerusalem. Another successful Bible study field trip!