"Masada did that to my papa"
On the way from the Dead Sea to Eilat, we decided to stop off at Masada – the biggest tourist attraction in Israel. The story of Masada is fascinating and continues to this day. Supposedly all Israeli soldiers take their oaths at this mountain fortress – swearing the Masada will never be taken again. For those not familiar with the history of Masada, it was originally built by Herod the Great but was later used as a fortress against the Romans by the Sicariis – an extremist sect of Judaism. The Romans laid siege to the fortress for over two years, then built a ramp up to the side. However, when the Romans entered the fortress, there was no resistance. Almost all of the inhabitants committed suicide rather than be taken captives by the Romans.
Therefore, this was the last fortress to fall under the Romans and marked the end of a Jewish State for almost two thousand years. However, as I read into the story a bit more, it is not this simple.
In short, the Sicariis were not very nice people. They took their name from a type of dagger and were infamous for sneaking these daggers under their cloaks, then suddenly leaping on the victims – killing them quickly before blending back into the populace. They killed a wide variety of people – from Romans, people representing the Romans, to Jews they felt were not pious enough. Supposedly they even killed several high priests of the great temple. In addition, while they were ‘peacefully’ living on top of Masada, they supposedly wiped out a nearby settlement of 700 Jews who they felt were not pious enough for their liking. In short, these were among the world’s first terrorists.
Another very controversial aspect of the Sicariis was the fact that they chose to commit suicide – which is forbidden under Jewish Law. As with most stories, there are many ways this one can be told.
Masada is only about twenty minutes from the Dead Sea, and at night there is supposedly a very interesting laser light show. I originally planned to see it, but since we left early to get Nelya to a hospital in Eilat we were not able to make it. This part of the country is hot, so I bought a two liter and a one liter bottle of water to bring up to the top with me. There’s a rather large gift shop, restaurant, movie theater, and hang out area at the bottom that is air conditioned. A cable car takes most visitors to the top. There exist foot paths (see closely in the image above) but they were closed that day because the temperatures were hot even for that area and the doctors didn’t want to sweat too much scraping dehydrated bodies off the side of the mountain.
Here’s a shot going the other way showing the complex at the bottom.
At the top, I rented an audio guide and began to walk around. The audio guide was a good investment, as it told me what many of the things were – with each having a handy number you can enter into the guide. For instance, this is the oldest synagogue ruins in the world.
This is a columbarium, where they originally kept carrier pigeons.
Here’s one of the viewpoints from Herod’s palace that you can climb down to. It also gives you an idea how dry this place is.
This is an ancient store room.
On top of Masada, it was ridiculously hot. I drank water often to prevent myself from dehydrating, but I could not imagine how people could live and work here for so long.
While I was wandering around Masada, Nelya and the kids watched a movie about it with a scene where Romans and people fought with swords. By the time I came down, I was fatigued, sweaty, and carrying two empty bottles that previously contained three liters of water. Knowing that people will be this thirsty, they set up a smoothie stand by the exit from the cable car. I quickly bought a smoothie and gulped it down (the entire liter of it) within a few minutes. I probably looked at that moment like Moses when he comes out of the desert in The Ten Commandments.
Nathan and Eitan took a look at their exhausted father.
“Did the Roman soldiers do that to you?”, Eitan asked.
I shook my head, unable to say much just yet.
“Masada did that to my papa”, Nathan said.
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Tags: israel, masada, photography, Travel
That looks like an “interesting” trail to the top under any circumstances.