After our quiet time we began the morning to driving to En Gedi. En Gedi is a on the Dead Sea about 35 miles southeast of Jerusalem. It contains many hideouts where David sometimes hid when he was fleeing from King Saul (1 Sam. 23:29–24:1). It is now a nature preserve as part of the Israeli National Park system. Does this look like the entrance to a stronghold?
The creek has many waterfalls like this one.
Most of them were easily accessible from the park entrance. However, there seemed to be an extended trail to reach the Cave of the Dudim. We heard it was another hour walk to the top of the low point in this picture.
So we went. It was hot and long, and I ran out of water. But some people who gave up on the trail and turned back gave me some of theirs. Here is one of the views on the way.
Yes that is the Dead Sea in the background. We were really hot and tired at the top, but this is what we were greeted with at the cave.
We moved on from En Gedi to Masada. Masada was an impeccable stronghold that Herod the Great built. Maybe some of you have seen the movie of the same name. I think Peter O’Toole is one of the stars. Masada was the last stronghold of the Jewish rebellion of 67-73 AD. Here is a picture from a long way away on the highway.
We took a cable car to the top.
Here is the siege ramp that the Romans built to take the fortress. The actually lay siege to the fortress toward the end of 72 AD and breeched the wall in 73 AD. The entire 960 occupants of Masada (save a couple of women) committed suicide during the night rather than be taken captive by the Romans.
From Masada we drove through the area of the traditional site of Sodom and Gomorrah on the south end of the Dead Sea.
Then we drove east to Beersheba. We were intending to see the old Tel near the new city. But it was dusk; we missed our exit on the highway, so we headed to Beth Shemesh. We passed through the valley of Elah where David killed Goliath (although I wasn’t sure of it until today. A few kilometers just outside of Beth Shemesh, the police stopped all traffic and sent us away. They said there was some kind of fire blocking the Street. So, we took a half hour detour to get to Jerusalem. We arrived to spend the night in The Little House in the Colony.
The creek has many waterfalls like this one.
Most of them were easily accessible from the park entrance. However, there seemed to be an extended trail to reach the Cave of the Dudim. We heard it was another hour walk to the top of the low point in this picture.
So we went. It was hot and long, and I ran out of water. But some people who gave up on the trail and turned back gave me some of theirs. Here is one of the views on the way.
Yes that is the Dead Sea in the background. We were really hot and tired at the top, but this is what we were greeted with at the cave.
We moved on from En Gedi to Masada. Masada was an impeccable stronghold that Herod the Great built. Maybe some of you have seen the movie of the same name. I think Peter O’Toole is one of the stars. Masada was the last stronghold of the Jewish rebellion of 67-73 AD. Here is a picture from a long way away on the highway.
We took a cable car to the top.
Here is the siege ramp that the Romans built to take the fortress. The actually lay siege to the fortress toward the end of 72 AD and breeched the wall in 73 AD. The entire 960 occupants of Masada (save a couple of women) committed suicide during the night rather than be taken captive by the Romans.
From Masada we drove through the area of the traditional site of Sodom and Gomorrah on the south end of the Dead Sea.
Then we drove east to Beersheba. We were intending to see the old Tel near the new city. But it was dusk; we missed our exit on the highway, so we headed to Beth Shemesh. We passed through the valley of Elah where David killed Goliath (although I wasn’t sure of it until today. A few kilometers just outside of Beth Shemesh, the police stopped all traffic and sent us away. They said there was some kind of fire blocking the Street. So, we took a half hour detour to get to Jerusalem. We arrived to spend the night in The Little House in the Colony.
No comments:
Post a Comment