Day 10 - Dead Sea and Masada

Our day started with a long drive along the Dead Sea, which gave us a feel for its breadth, though that has shrunken considerably over the years. Not only is it the lowest point on Earth, but its water level is dropping at a rate of about three feet per year. We could see abandoned resorts that had once been seaside but that now were empty shells on an apocalyptic landscape. The 34% salinity also ends-up creating large sinkholes along the edges. But we also saw fields of date palms and a kibbutz here-and-there.

The destination was Masada, an isolated mountain-top fortification built by Herod the Great that dates to the 1st century BC. In 73 to 74 CE, it was the site of a siege by the Romans against Jewish zealots that were hiding there, and it allegedly ended with the mass suicide of close to 1,000 people.

It’s wicked cool. I remember my dad being fascinated by it by virtue of his long-time subscription to National Geographic. Today it is one of Israel’s most popular tourist attractions, and you can clearly see why.

After a few hours there, we set off to Jericho, which today is a Palestinian city of about 25,000 people in the West Bank (we drove through several checkpoints on both days 9 and 10). Dating back about 11,000 years, Jericho is the oldest city in the world, with the world’s oldest known protective wall (our tour guide frequently uses the term “back in the day,” and he usually means, well, waaaaaay back in the day). As we drove to Jericho, we passed the cave where the Dead Sea Scrolls had been found.

We had a wonderful final evening in Jerusalem, walking first to a superb restaurant, The Culinary Workshop and walking after dinner to a speakeasy, The Gatsby.

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