Okay, I'm a few days behind. We get back to the room at night and I elevate my knee, and usually fall asleep, often before 8:00pm. One night I missed dinner, which was fine considering how much I've been eating on this trip. Yesterday my goal was to walk LESS than 6,000 steps. I tried really hard. We toured Caesarea, which is an amazing place, and I avoided SO MANY RUINS! I just walked the shortest path between the entrance and the exit, and still ended the day with 8,000 steps. The other days have been between 10,000 and 14,000 steps, so 8,000 is still better, and my knee feels better today. So anyway, it's time to catch up. I'm in a van with WiFi, riding from Tel Aviv to Amman, Jordan. I'll have some time to catch up over the next few hours.
Thursday morning we checked out of our Jerusalem hotel, then headed south to Masada. Have you ever seen the movie Masada? It came out as a made-for-TV mini-series in 1981. I was twelve when my family watched it. It depicts the story of the Roman siege of Masada. A few years before the siege there was a Jewish uprising against Rome. This was a small group of rebels against the largest, mightiest military in the world. As expected, Rome crushed the rebellion completely, and in the process they razed Jerusalem to the ground and left the Temple Mount a pile of rubble. We talk about the Pax Romana as a period of nearly 200 years of peace in the Roman Empire, beginning with Augustus Caesar. But this is how the peace was kept -- through the violent squelching of local uprisings.
One group of Jews that survived the Roman onslaught fled to the south, where Herod had built his fortress on Masada. Now I have to go back and talk a little bit about Herod. History knows him as "Herod the Great".
- Christians know him as the King who ordered all baby boys slaughtered because the Wise Men told him there would be a King born there, and he didn't want to be supplanted.**
- Jews know Herod the Great as the man who rebuilt the Temple to be one of the grandest structures in ancient Jewish history, but he kept a firm and tyrannical rule over his subjects, so he wasn't a just or well-loved leader like Solomon or David.
- History tells us that there was probably never any order to massacre boy babies. There is no mention of it in the other gospels, or any other book of the Bible, or any other piece of parchment ever found in Israel or ancient Rome, and it would have been a very big deal to never mention.*** History also tells us he was an incredible builder.
This is what Herod the Great looked like. The internet doesn't lie.
Anyway, history calls him Herod The Great because he oversaw the building of some pretty amazing things. The second Temple Mount was doubled in size, and the grandeur of the renovated Temple was incredible. At the coastal town of Caesarea he created the first underwater concrete harbor in history, to create a safe port for trading vessels. He named this port city Caesarea. Not Davidstown, not Abrahamville, and not even Herodopolis. Caesarea, after Augustus Caesar. This was an acknowledgement of Roman authority and might, and a show of deference to his political superiors. Herod knew how to play the game.
So this was Herod. He was a paranoid megalomaniac. He licked the boots of Augustus, but he didn't really trust him, so in 30 BCE he began construction of a fortress near the dead sea. Masada.
One century later, in 70 CE, Herod was dead (died in 4 BCE) and the Jews rebelled against Rome, leading to the total ruin of Jerusalem. About 1,000 Jews fled to Masada. The fortress was stocked with giant cisterns full of water, as well as provisions for a town to survive for some time. The Romans pursued them, but couldn't immediately defeat them. Ultimately there would be 15,000 troops deployed to Masada, and still they were unable to reach the Jews with arrows or catapults. They decided to build an earthen ramp. It had to be wide enough and strong enough to roll a giant battering ram and hundreds of armed soldiers. It took months for thousands of men to build the ramp. Finally they were able to reach the fortress and batter the walls down. When they entered the fortress they found 960 bodies. The Jews had committed mass suicide, rather than surrender to slavery under Rome.
Full disclosure: This isn't my photo.
I was twelve when I watched that movie, and I can still see the defeated expression on Peter O'Toole's face. Priceless.
With all that said, this is the site where we began our day! (What a lead-up, huh?)
Thankfully, we didn't have to hike the switchbacks up the side of the mountain to get to the plateau. We rode a cable car to the top. It holds 65 people, and leaves every 15 minutes. Those who hike take about 1 1/2 hours to get to the top, and it is strongly discouraged in the summer months because it is so hot it can be dangerous. Naz told us that a few years ago a group defied the caution against hiking, and two of them died. It's late March for us, we were there in the morning, we rode the cable car, and we were still sweating like crazy.
Once at the top it takes about two hours to walk the perimeter of the fortress. I didn't walk the entire perimeter. There were ruins on every part of the plateau. Over the centuries the original structures took a lot of damage, mostly from earthquakes. But with the renewed interest in Masada over the past 2 centuries there has been renewed interest in rebuilding Masada. Some of the buildings have black lines around them. Everything below the line is original, and everything above the line has been rebuilt using the original stones lying around the site. I stared at the walls, comparing what was below the line to what was above the line, and I couldn't see a difference in structure. They've done an incredible job rebuilding.
The crows were very insistent. Not an informative photo, but I like it, so here it is!
That's me! At Masada!
Bathhouse. See the black line?
Israel's flag flying over Masada.
Mom reading the info that's presented in Hebrew, Arabic, and English.
Far below the fortress are some squares like this one. These were the Roman encampments.
After two hours we were back on the cable car, back to the bus, and on our way to the Dead Sea. I'll shorten this part because I just made you read a lot of information about King Herod. The Dead Sea was cool. Lots of stairs, so any benefit I hoped to receive for my knee, with the miraculous healing powers of the Dead Sea mud was offset by the many, many stairs we walked down to get there, and back up to get showered. Floating in a seated position was everything I expected it to be. Once we emerged from the water we could visit showers on the beach. Those who didn't shower were coated in a layer of minerals and salt by the time they got to the top of the stairs. Rather than feeling sacred or holy, there was a spring break party atmosphere there. Loudspeakers played loud music, mostly Spanish pop music, and people were drinking and laughing and enjoying the outdoors. They had an open-air bar where they served snacks and drinks, and there were people from EVERYWHERE going up and down the stairs to the water. There was also a swimming pool at the entrance, where many people were playing.
Back to the bus, we headed to our next stop. Remember the Bible story about Zachaeus, the wee little man who climbed up in the Sycamore tree, for the Lord he wanted to see? (earworm) There's a church built there. That tree is still there, although it's just a large stump encased in glass. There is a living sycamore tree right next to that case.
What's left of Zachaeus's sycamore tree.
The church built at the spot where Jesus sang, "Zachaeus, you come down, for I'm going to your house todaaaaaaay."
Then another short drive to Temptation Mountain, where Jesus spent 40 days during lent, and then we drove through Jericho. Jericho is the oldest city in the world. Human civilization is believed to be 10,000 to 12,000 years old. Jericho is dated to 10,000 years old. The story of Joshua entering Jericho at the end of the 40 years in the desert was about 3,400 years ago. For millennia, if you lived in the area but weren't living in Jericho you were living in the desert, working desperately to find anything to eat or drink. If you were living in Jericho you were living in an oasis, full of fruit trees of all kinds, and a source of fresh water. This is why the people in Jericho built the wall that Joshua destroyed. It was border control of a sort. Jericho is still an oasis in the desert. We drove from the dead sea through miles and miles (kilometers and kilometers) of rock and desert, and then we came to Jericho and all of its palm trees. It's still a very busy city.
At the end of the day we checked into a Kibbutz in Tiberius, overlooking the Sea of Galilee. Dinner in the dining room was excellent. Accommodations were simple and comfortable. My leg was swollen and tired, and I slept hard.
So ended day 8. That was Thursday. Today is Sunday. So much more to share!
*For those of you who aren't sure about BCE and CE, these letters stand for Before the Common Era and Common Era. For nearly two thousand years the Christian world used BC for Before Christ, and AD for Anno Domini, which means "Year Of Our Lord" in Latin. But the world has gotten far more interconnected in the past couple of centuries, and especially in the recent decades. Because most of the world isn't Christian, Before Christ and Anno Domini are a bit myopic. The academic world uses BCE and CE now. You'll still hear BC and AD in church environments.
**Herod the Great is not the same Herod that beheaded John The Baptist, or the Herod who met Jesus and sent him back to Pontius Pilate. That Herod was one of the surviving sons of Herod the Great, and he was known as Herod Antipas.
***Matthew's effort as a Gospel writer was to portray Jesus as the heir to King David. He had Jesus survive a massacre, the same way Moses survived Pharaoh's massacre of the babies when Moses was born. Matthew tells us Jesus was visited by three Kings (the Wise Men) and he was gifted Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh. Matthew never says anything about shepherds or a barn or a manger or a donkey. That was Luke. Luke's effort was to portray Jesus as a man of the people, and a champion of the poor. Luke couldn't very well have Jesus receiving gold, honored by Kings, and threatening the rule of King Herod. Matthew couldn't very well have had the heir to David's throne being born in a barn, visited by shepherds, and lying in a manger.
