Masada

After visiting the Garden Tomb we drove to the Masada. It is about an hour and half drive, along the western side of the Dead Sea. We came passed En Gedi (gedi means small deer, we saw a few) and it is the where David hid in the caves when he was fleeing from Saul. It inspired David to write Psalm 42, 'as the deer pants for the streams of water...', understandable words when you see this dry and thirsty land.View on the one side of the road and...
The view on the other side. The southern end of the Dead Sea, (which is drying up).

First sight of the mountain on which the Masada is built. Invisible from the front.

Lucky for us that there was a cable car bringing us up and down. It was pretty hot here in the desert.

We crossed the other 'bus' half way. The beautiful turqoise/blue Dead Sea in the background.

This is a model of the fortress of Herod the Great, or also called his 'winterhouse'.
He felt 'safe' at this place.
Some of the ruins that remain.

This enemy could be spotted from afar...
There were many cisterns that kept the water, also some lower down, with channels that gathered as much rain water as possible. Some food was grown on the top of the mountain as well.

Part of remaining luxurious bathhouse. There were several cisterns to keep all the water that had to be brought up. Herod would have needed quite a few slaves...

The mosaic floor...

Ironic that this cruel man who murdered many people, including family members and his wife and the children of Bethlehem, died only a few years after Christ's birth from an long and excruciatingly painful illness.

Here we are still walking on top of the mountain. The area is quite large. We mingled with Jews, who were using the holiday (Feast of Booth) to go on an outing.

Part of the synagogue that was used by the about 1000 Jews who fled to the abandoned Masada after the destruction of Jerusalem. They lived here for about 2 years.

On the one side of the mountain is this ramp, which still remains from that time. The Romans wanted to capture the fleeing Jews and they first tried to build this ramp themselves. However they were being killed by the Jews from above.  Later they forced captured Jews to build this ramp as 'a Jew may not kill other Jew' and so the ramp could be completed.
When the Romans finally reached the top, they found that all the Jews on the top had committed suicide; rather that then fall in the hands of the enemy.

Back down from the mountain. The squares in the distance are remains of the Roman camps when they surrounded the mountain.

For those rather walk down, this is part of the snake path you can take...

Sunset over the Dead Sea. This picture was taken while we were driving back to Jerusalem.