The Dead Sea

We left the hostel early in order to climb Masada before it got too hot. We walked up the back of Masada, up the Roman siege ramp - an easier route than the Snake Path up the front. The top was much bigger than I expected and it was interesting to walk around the ruins and look over the wilderness and the Dead Sea.

One of the Roman camps surrounding Masada

A scribe at work in the synagogue

Looking north east to the Dead Sea

Original paint in Herod's lower palace

Large cistern at the top of the fortress

The snake trail

After hiking down the Snake Path in the blazing heat, we really welcomed our next stop at En-Gedi on the Dead Sea (where the thermometer on the wall said it was 37 degrees). It's a weird feeling to be able to float above the water - it's about 27% salt. Water levels have dropped a lot in recent years (about 1m per year!) due to water being taken from the Jordan River, so there isn't a beach anymore, just a steep slope to the water. After playing around for a while, being careful not to splash (it's painful to get any in the eyes or nose), we showered off and had lunch.

The next stop was just up the road at Nahal David. This area is mentioned a few times in the Bible, such as when David is hiding from Saul in a cave and Saul comes in to relieve himself. An interesting fact that I learned about this story - the corner of the robe, where the tassles where, is also where they used to attach symbols of identification (such as today's military medals), so when David cut the corner of Saul's robe off, he wasn't just cutting off a corner of Saul's robe, but was dishonouring Saul. After this brief discussion, we hiked up to the waterfalls.

Further up the coast of the Dead Sea, we came to the ruins of Qumran, the site of the Dead Sea Scrolls. While it was interesting to hear about the life of the people that lived here and their religious beliefs, the high temperatures (and no shade) made it hard to concentrate! We climbed up to Cave #11, but other than the bat guano, there wasn't much to see in there. At the end of the day, we were grateful to get back to the hotel and into a cool shower!