Day Six

Once again we have an early wake up call of 6:30 am and it just occurred to me that I have not mentioned anything about our eating arrangements. Most mornings we dine in the hotels as well as the nights and the afternoons we partake abroad. One thing in particular I did wish to point out is that dairy is serve only in the mornings and meats during the nights, the two are never served at the same time. There are also special ritual hands washing urns that the Jewish population uses that have two handles

Today we will be touring Masada a Judean fortress continuing through the land described in Genesis to ride camels and enjoy lunch in what is rumored to be Abrahams Original Tent, just kidding this is just a fun role playing game for us tourist types. Following lunch will be our first visit to the Wailing Wall and the beginning of our ascent into Jerusalem.

As we journey to Masada we have been told that we will be taking a cable car up the mountain, to the plateau whose site was used as a fortress. The original encampment was built by Herod and later used by Eleazar as a last stand against the Romans this to is considered another heritage site.

Some notes regarding this fortress can be found below.

1.      400 meters above the surrounding area.

2.      The plateau is totally isolated.

3.      Jerusalem is only 60km away a 2 day travel.

4.      En Gedi is a close food source 12km away.

5.      Water access was from flash floods directed into cisterns.

In the Year 67BC the Jewish war began and the Zealots and their families came to Masada for defense. As mentioned above they collected water in Cisterns, the stronghold held 14 and each on could supply water to 1000 people for roughly 20 years.

Flavius Sylva was the Roman commander who came to handle the Jewish uprising and attacked Masada. Before laying siege to the fortress he waited 6 months to see if he could simply wait them out, this did not work. In order to finally breach the walls and defeat his enemies Flavius had to build a large dirt ramp in order to scale the walls. His actions are documented by 1st century Jewish-Roman historian Josephus. In the end, Flavius’s victory was spoiled by the zealots because they all committed suicide and burn everything left behind. It was calculated that 967 zealots were occupying the fortress at the time.

Aaron our guide also mentioned that Masada was the site of three palaces that King Herod built and the oldest Synagogue in Israel. It was also the site of the discovery of the Hebrew Ben Sira Scroll at Masada in 1964. Our guide also mentioned that Masada was taken in 74BC and was the date that Israel lost their independence until 1948 after World War II.

After our visit in Megiddo we passed Jericho again on our way through the land of Genesis to the famed Abrahams tent where we had a sit down lunch while being entertained by a great storyteller. After lunch we all had an opportunity to ride on camels. As we closed off our day Aaron mentioned that we would be exploring the city of Jerusalem where currently 750,000 people reside. King David, we were told, was the first to build this great city.

Tomorrow we will be starting our day on the Mount of Olives and continue on into the city, while visiting all the Stations of the Cross. In the afternoon we will be stopping at the famous Wailing Wall entering through the Dung Gate. Because the Sabbath is coming many celebrations should be evident.

As we continued to travel on the bus to our hotel, we also saw the Damascus gate and the Arabic Bazaar, which was also pointed out by our guide to be close to the Garden tomb. Here the walls of the late Ottoman part of the city could be seen which was built around 500 years ago.

There are currently 30,000 people residing in the old city portion of Jerusalem, and as we continued traveling on the Jericho Road into the Kidron Valley we also passed a third gate which is called the Lion’s gate which is the one we will be entering in tomorrow. Aaron also mentioned that we will be following the traditional palm Sunday route. The Western wall of the old city is 488 meters long and encloses the west portion of the Temple Mount. The exposed 57 meters of this wall is more commonly referred to as the Wailing Wall. The Dome of the rock, which was built in 69 AD and covers the Holy of Holies, is not permitted to be entered by the Jewish people until after the Messiah comes and the Third Temple is built. They still do not believe that Jesus was the Messiah, very sad note on which to end this days touring.