Masada, the second time

In mid-March, we went to Masada with our ulpan class. Rebekah came with us and Miriam stayed in school. This trip was completely different from the family trip the week before. On the way, we saw lots of camels by the road. They're dangerous, not because they're aggressive, but because if you hit one, it's a lot like hitting a moose. We stopped several times to chase them away from the road. 

Rebekah at 100m below sea level. Note the Dead Sea in the background, far below.

We finally reached Masada. The first time we went with the family, we climbed at dawn and saw only a few other people. This time was completely different: hordes of people everywhere; guides herding their groups around, raising paddles with numbers over their heads so their groups could find them; souvenir shops selling ice cream and the famed Ahava dead sea products. We took the cable car up, reaching the top in 2 minutes, instead of the hour it took us to walk. 

Kids at Masada

Looking down at the Snake Path from the cable car

The museum is excellent, telling the story of Masada as you walk through life-size models of people in several rooms showing what life would have been like. Cases of artifacts are mixed in. The overall feel is of being there 2000+ years ago.

To escape the wind and the crowds, we went down into a giant cistern, probably 30' deep and several hundred feet long. The engineering was extremely impressive. To build it, they would have chiseled the stone and then carted it away, back up through the small holes at the top. The cistern would fill up in wet years and hold enough water for the people of Masada to live on for several years.

Rebekah walking down the steps into the cistern

Inside the cistern

After Masada, we went to Ein Bokek, a strip of luxury spa hotels on the Dead Sea. You sure can't tell from the public beach, though. It was a decidedly strange place. We ate our picnic lunch perched on the edge of a concrete wall because the sand wasn't so inviting and we didn't want to rent chairs for just a few minutes. Pop music blared from restaurant speakers. Teenage girls in tiny bikinis ran around in small groups, foreigners there for psoriasis cures lay in the sun, off-duty soldiers flirted and talked on the cell phones while walking on the beach with their guns casually hanging over their shoulders. Dead Sea salt and mud are world-renowned. Half a dozen shops sold their own brands, large stores with clean, appealing displays and saleswomen in white lab coats. The WC next door, though, was decidedly third world.

off-duty soldiers at Ein Bokek

Rebekah has promised to write about the history of Masada, so I am leaving that for her.