Sat Apr 27 photos

Friday Night sundown starts shabbat. Everything closes down. Dinner service at the hotel is sparse.














We walked to Adom, Middle East French. Fantastic. Lamb chops, tabouleh w mint, green onion, parsley, cranberries.

Moon over Jerusalem.

Saturday breakfast was all cooked Friday, just reheated. No cappucino's, nor croissants nor poached eggs. Lots of fruit still. You know the meat carvery stations at buffets, well here they have a fruit carvery and fruit juicer guy. I had cucumber juice yesterday, beet juice too. 

Today we drove, 12 of us in our huge bus, 2 people stayed behind as it is hot, and steep walking.

We went 1-1/2 miles south into the West Bank, drove along right next to the Dead Sea, to Masada.





















Bedouins living next to the highway.

Landscape becomes less green.
Desert.

 It reached 100 degrees at the Dead Sea today.

The sun has been hot and bright this whole trip, even MORE so now. 

Qumran, hills above Dead Sea where Essenes lived, John the Baptist. They copied and stored the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Date Plantations, sulfur springs. 

This is confluence of three continents, cross species. Acacia tree from Africa. Ibexes too. We saw a mom and baby cross the highway ( no photo).

First sight of Masada. Huge. Ginormous. Steep.

5 BC Roman Herod the Great ( fortified Second Temple in Jerusalem) builds several forts in Israel. Masada has a palace for Herod, three tiers going down hill, bathhouses, large buildings, for 900 soldiers to live here. 

67 AD Rome takes over all Israel directly, Masada is last holdout... of the Jewish Zealots. 10,000 Roman soldiers lay seige to 900 Jews here, for a year. Romans built seige towers ( diamond bases on ground) and were building a seige ramp up west side. Finally they broke down double wall. Jews had all taken their own lifes rather than become Roman slaves.




Opted for cable car instead of 'snake path'.

Desert as far as you can see. Or the salty Dead Sea.

Dovecote, their protein source.

Triangle is seige ramp. 

Part of double wall Romans broke through.

Church built in Byzantine time. Then Muslims took over in 700.

Birds, some soar, some sit and watch.

Salt lady.

Shoreline of Dead Sea, white is not foam, it's hard salt.

Mike's in, and yes he is floating!

I went in up to my knees, but I did cake the mud onto my hands. Softens them. 

Driving back to hotel. 

Several Bedouin camps. 

City on hill, still in West Bank.

Camels just by the road, alone. 

Back at hotel, my lobby 'desk'.

And the gladiolas which were tight buds when we came, have opened up.