Day 10: Masada and Dead Sea Swim

We are using the hotel computer so some things are a little different. Therefore, you will see pictures first this time, and then the text. We love you guys!

Bodie on one of the walls of the palace in Masada

Heidi with a side view of Herods personal palace carved out of the side of the mountain
Heidi in the center of the synagogue where the Jewish group took their last stand.
Floating in the Dead Sea!Unbelievable!
A beautiful view of the Dead Sea from the bus.
So, this is sea level. And there are mountains below it! Crazy! This is on the road down to the Dead Sea.
This is a shot of the tunnels we went through two nights ago.

Before we begin to tell you about today, we must tell you about last evening. We were able to go through the excavated tunnels around the temple and get to the closest place to the Holy of Holies that a Jew or Gentile can get. It was neat doing it at night, it felt all the more like secret mission. We learned much about the construction of the two temples and were amazed by some of the stone work.

This morning we headed to the mountain of Masada. The only way up is by gondola or a steep switchback hike. What a fascinating place. Herod carved two palaces out of stone on this hill top, as well as establised and elaborate water system to bring water to it. It is unbelievable that he could do this kind of thing back then.

Many years later, a group of Jews that had started a revolt against the Roman attempts to enslave them took refuge on this very hill top. They had plenty of food and water (thanks to Herod's design) but the Romans eventually built a huge ramp and broke their defenses after many months. Instead of being enslaved, the group took their last stand by taking their own lives in the synagoge they had constructed. Quite an amazing story.

We next headed to the Dead Sea to take a swim. Wow. You sit back and your legs fly up to the surface because there is so much salt in the water. You can float flay almost completely on top of the water! Your skin feels so soft and oily when you come out. Quite and experience.

We headed back to the hotel and barely had time for dinner before the Temple Conference. This conference is set up by Koinania House and brings different scholars to talk about issues surrounding the temple. It was fascinating. Chuck spoke on the history of the Temple and then a member of the Kineset (Israel's Parliment) spoke about the importance of a united approach supporting the rights of Jews and Christians to be able to pray on the temple mount. This was followed by a presentation by Ashur Kaufman on his theory of the temple mount actually being about 100 meters south of where the Dome of the Rock now sits. We will have another conference tonight.

Sorry we were late in posting this time...our days are quite full! We wake up at 6:00 and usually don't get back unil 6:00pm. Then it is dinner and sometimes another tour after dinner! We are having such a blessed time. Thank you for all your comments and support, we love sharing this experience with you.