The Dead Sea and Masada - Day 15

10:30 PM Israel time.

Just a taste of today with some pictures, before I go to bed and pass out! Descriptions and other updates coming tomorrow.

IMPORTANT QUESTION: Can anyone else see the pictures below? My mom says she can't; I logged out of Blogger/Google and reloaded and I can see them, but not sure if there's a Picasa cookie buried somewhere on my laptop or not. Hit the comments below and let me know please!

UPDATE: I think I figured out what was wrong, and hopefully you can see pictures below!

Masada:

Self portrait from the Visitors Center at the bottom of the funicular.

Going up...

The Snake Path. This is how King Herod and the Jews accessed the top of Masada, and also why it was a stronghold against the Romans for so long. You can still climb it today; someday if I am back and not on a tour I'd like to do that.

Panoramic view of the funicular line from the top.

This was one of 29 storerooms for food in the complex. This provided enough food for 10-15 YEARS.

Looking down onto the three tiers of Herod's palace.

One of the cisterns (on the right) with what was probably a connected well/water gathering locations. By creating dams in the nearby hills, any rainwater was channeled into lower cisterns at the base of Masada and then hand-carried at night to cisterns at the top, ensuring enough water supply in a hilltop desert stronghold for not just drinking but to also supply three separate bath houses with steam saunas.

This room was once the synagog of Masada, and may be the oldest synagog in the world. Documents from before this time only discuss the Temple in Jerusalem, but no mention of other synagogs.

This is the ramp the Romans constructed (by slave labor) to breach Masada. It took them 6 months of building, during which time, the Jewish community at the top threw both water and food down on the Romans, to say "you will not force us out by starvation or thirst." When the Romans did finally break into Masada, they had found that the entire community of 1000 Jews had committed mass suicide rather than be taken as slaves by the Romans.

Dovecote

One of the original mosaic tile floors still in existence today. This was the dressing room for one of the bathhouses, which was entered by a stairway on the lower left corner of the picture.

Another view, showing the stairs to the steam room.

The Dead Sea:

Ein Gedi Spa, on the Dead Sea. Lowest point on earth, 420m (1400ft) below sea level. We spent 3 blissful hours here. I soaked for 15 minutes in a sulfur bath inside, rinsed off, went outside and slathered myself with Dead Sea mud, waited for it to dry, rinsed off in a sulfur shower and then a shower of fresh water, then went to the sea and floated for about 20 minutes.

Salt crystals that form along the shores of the sea. The bottom is not sand or stones, but is crystallized minerals. You do not want to go barefoot on this beach!

Relaxed after my swim/float! The Dead Sea is 34% solid, so you are much more buoyant than in even normal ocean water. The floating was amazing, but you really have to struggle to put your feet back down when you want to get out! Also, the water is so high in mineral content that you do NOT want to get it in your eyes.

There are a few sun shelters on the beach, and then a couple like this one built in about 2 feet of water. The salt crystallizes on the pillars and forms really cool shapes. Also, my pictures do not do the color of the water justice.

Panoramic of the Dead Sea from shore. The mountains in the distance are the Moav mountains in Jordan.

Other swimmers (saying "other floaters" sounds a bit morbid, but maybe I've just been watching too much CSI!)