June 11, 2007

Yay! This is one day that I've been looking forward to all semester! Masada, Dead Sea, Qumran!

Masada
History: Fortified by Herod the Great, in case the people revolted against him. Last hold out of the Jewish rebels (Zealots or Sicarii). Built on top of cliffs (300-1300 feet high) with only 3 narrow paths to get up or down. Romans built a siege ramp using Jewish slaves. They captured it in 72 AD, only to find all the rebels had committed suicide. (Or rather, 10 had committed murder, then suicide.) Only 2 women and 5 children survived by hiding in cisterns. At least… if you believe Josephus. Read the Wikipedia article at the least.

Each of us has to do one site report, to tell the class what we're getting into. This was my site. I think it’s remarkable that the sites were chosen randomly, and I got this one. It made me so happy! I knew the majority of the story right off. Throughout the semester I kept thinking of how I wanted to present it. But it was really easy to decide that I wanted to do it in story form. I’m kind of glad I got to do it in the classroom, though. I didn’t have to try to work up everyone’s emotions while fighting to stand upright on a bus. (I presented on Sunday morning, so that I could do it before the movie—when people were still interested.) It shocked me as I told the story that I actually got choked up. There were a few times that I thought I would have to stop because of it. That was greatly unexpected.

The site itself was wonderful. All I could have hoped for. I am eternally grateful for the cable car. It would be fun, some cool, breezy day, to hike up the siege ramp… but not today. Luckily, following tradition, “the weather [was] very unusual. You’ll never see weather like this again.” I’m really hoping I’m the lucky one in the group so that we can keep the nice weather for when Travis comes. This place was much larger than I expected it to be. I guess it makes sense to house 900 people with food and to spare. We went to a few of Herod’s palaces and still could see the paint on the walls. The cistern we went into was huge! Climbing those steep stairs, however, I can’t fathom doing while carrying full buckets of water. You’d have to be skilled and trained to accomplish such a feat! But it’s easy to see how they could easily store plenty of water for a long period of time. I’ve decided that if we could keep the cable car, the weather, and install escalators, I really wouldn’t mind living there. But I think that’s too much to ask. :)

Dead Sea
Ahhh!!! This is my favorite water spot of all. Have I mentioned yet that I am scared to death of drowning? :) I can’t keep my face underwater; I can’t be where I can’t touch the ground or be close to a wall or rock to hang onto. I simply can’t tread water or float or swim well enough for me to feel comfortable further out. But the Dead Sea?! Amazing! I can be as deep as I want and stay floating without any fear at all! Minus the pain caused when it gets in my eye, I could stay out there forever! Travis, we're going. Period end of story. Everyone needs to experience it at least once. I want to do it at least twice. :) Now, there are those of you who will say, "How much different could it be than the Great Salt Lake?" Well, I have to honestly admit that I can't say from experience. I've never been in the Great Salt Lake. (Though, I definitely want to now!) But, according to the site report, the Salt Lake has between 9-23% salt density at a given moment. The Dead Sea is 30%. It evaporates six million tons of water off the surface every day. Plus, how many times can you go swimming and say that you're below sea level? Or even, "I'm in the lowest place on earth. Right now." haha! I loved it!

Qumran
We should have done this before the Dead Sea. This is one site I had been looking forward to the entire time, but the Dead Sea had sapped me of all energy, and all I wanted to do was sleep. I know I wasn’t alone in that, either. This was a lot smaller than I had expected. I don’t think we went into the entire thing. And we got a lot closer than I had imagined to the caves. Well, at least to one. (Cave 4?) Just as I was waking up and really getting into it, it was time to go. I really hadn’t expected such a short stop. Hmm... We'll go back there. I'm sure Trav can get a much better picture of the caves than I could have. Oh, but this was probably the hottest site yet for Israel.