We headed north to Masada which is only about 30 miles from Jerusalem. The Zealots living here could see the smoke when Rome was burning during the destruction in 70 ad. Reading the bible and looking at a map it seems like everything is so far apart but places are actually near each other.
Masada is Hebrew for fortress. This fortress is atop an isolated rock cliff at the western end of the
Judean desert overlooking the Dead Sea. On the east the cliff falls in a sheer drop 450 meters. The natural approaches to the cliff top are very difficult. Herod the great built the fortress about 37
bc. Herod was an
Idumean and had been made King of Judea by the Romans and was hated by the Jews. He was a master builder and intended this to be a refuge. There was a 4,300' and 12' thick double
casemate wall with the inner space divided into 70 rooms, 30 towers and 4 gates around the top of the plateau, storehouses, 12 huge ingeniously designed cisterns that could hold 40,000 cu.m. of water filled from two wadis to the west (the water was still usable by the Zealots 75 years later), barracks, palaces, and an armory. The story of Masada really begins 75 years after Herod's death in 66 ad. After Herod's death a small group of Roman solders stay at the fortress. At the beginning of the Jewish revolt against the Romans a group of Jewish rebels, called
Sicarii, overcame the Roman garrison of Masada. Before the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the second Temple (70 ad) they were joined by additional
Sicarii and their families who were expelled from Jerusalem. They raided and harassed the Romans for two years. In 73 ad the Roman governor
Flavius Silva marches against Masada with the Tenth Legion (
Fretensis), auxiliary units and thousands of Jewish prisoners of war. The Romans established 8 camps at the base of Masada, laid siege to it and built a high
circumvallation wall. The Romans had no water-the nearest spring is 10 miles away in
Ein Gedi. Their ration was 2 cups a day. Fights broke out, they killed each other and gambled for the extra water. In nine months the Romans built an assault ramp to the top using the slaves. The Zealots allowed the ramp to be built, though it would have been easy to prevent, so to not kill the slaves. After the ramp was complete, the Romans moved a battering ram up and direct it against the wall. They broke the stone wall but the defenders managed to build a wall of earth and wood that was
flexible and hard to break. Eventually the Romans destroyed it by fire and decided to enter the fortress the next day.
At night Eleazar, the leader, gathered all the defenders and persuaded them to kill themselves rather than fall into the hands of Romans. The children would have been put into slavery, the women abused and the men killed had they chosen to stay. The people set fire to all their personal belongings and ten people chosen by a lot killed everyone else and then committed suicide. In the morning, Romans entered a silent fortress and found only dead bodies. Two women and 5 children survived by hiding in a cave. A Roman garrison was stationed in Masada for some time after the fall.
The Romans camps and wall are still very clear.
The Roman wall snakes through the wilderness.
This gate is pictured above.
Herod constructed the most important buildings in the northern part of Masada situated beneath the wall daringly constructed on the very edge of the precipice. The northern edge of the rock is 2-3 m. wide, Herod's engineers had to fashion an artificial platform with the aid of powerful supporting walls. The northern palace-royal villa, had magnificent views of the surrounding area as far as
Ein-
Gedi. It was built in three tiers, the upper one with living quarters. The walls and ceilings were decorated with frescoes. There was a western palace with scores of rooms, a large reception hall with magnificent richly colored frescos. There is a large bath house built in the Roman style with four rooms and a court. The largest room, the
caldarium (hot room) had a hypocaust (heating room) beneath it. It's floor stood on 200 tiny columns and the walls were faced with perforated clay pipes through which an adjacent furnace drove hot air.
During the period of the Zealots the decorative architectural parts of the luxurious palaces were dismantled for building materials, the rooms and courts were partitioned to serve as dwellings for almost 1000 Zealots. Most of the zealots were housed in the double wall in shacks of mud and small stones. Two
mikveh-ritual bath to wash away impurities, were found during excavations. When news about this find was announced, the orthodox Talmudic scholars became especially interested-no
mikve had been discovered belonging to the period when the
Halakhic rules were written. Two specialists carefully took measurements, at the end of the thorough study the Rabbis announced the
mikve excellently met all the standards. A synagogue was discovered, at the time the earliest known one, oriented toward Jerusalem.
There were large gardens, livestock, and all buildings were plastered inside and out.
The quarry.
More than 700
ostraca were found written in Hebrew or Aramaic near the store rooms and are considered to be connected to the Zealot rationing system. Parts of 14 biblical, apocryphal, and sectarian scrolls were found at Masada. They are the first scroll discovered outside of the Qumran caves. One important find was a sectarian document identical with one found in Qumran using a 364 day calendar used by the Dead Sea Sect. This is proof the dead Sea Scrolls were dated correctly. Another important scroll, in its Greek translation known as "
Ecclesiasticus."
Eleven small
ostraca were found, different from all the others, inscribed by the same hand with a single name, one is Ben
Yair. These were used in the casting of the lots between Ben
Yair and the surviving ten people.
In the area of the Roman assault ramp were found hundreds of Roman ballistic stones.
Long narrow storerooms. Each type of room held exclusively its own type of vessels: oil jars, wine jars, flour jars. Everything was held in perfect order. The zealots had intentionally left everything intact to show the Romans that they had not died by lack of food.
Looking from the top down to the second and third levels of the villa.
The Roman assault ramp.
Model of the northern palace.
Jewish ritual baths.
The columns used to raise the floor to heat the bath.
The chambers to heat the walls.
Better look at the Roman assult ramp.
Diagram of the ramp.
The tri-level northern palace.
Ein Gedi is a spring fed oasis meaning goat kid (gedi) spring (ein). 2 Chronicles 20:2 it is identified with Hazazon-tamar, where the Moabites and Ammonites gathered in order to fight Josaphat. In Genesis 14:7 it is mentioned as being an Amorite city. In Joshua 15:62, Ein Gedi is named among the cities of the tribe of Judah. Later, King David hides in the desert of En Gedi (1 Samuel 24:1-2) as King Saul seeks him.
Ein Gedi is a sanctuary for many types of plants, birds, and animals. The plants are from tropical, desert, Mediterranean, and steppian regions. The animal above is a Rock Hyrax or rock badger. They are found all across Africa the Middle East in habitats with rock crevices. They live in groups of 10-80 and use sentries to keep watch for predators. Every language has a name for them. In Israel they are called a conni. Ronnie, our guide who is hysterically funny, told us an exotic island off the coast of Manhattan was named after them...Coney Island...
This is a treacherous environment, shepherds and Bedouin travel from oasis to oasis. Wadi, dried up river beds are dangerous flash flood zones. Sheep covered in wool and secreting lanolin need water. They will head to the Dead Sea which will kill them on a wadi which will also kill them. Jesus is the good shepherd-living water which dwells in us-the Holy Spirit.
The water has this beautiful minty blue with spectacular salt formations.
We headed north to Masada which is only about 30 miles from Jerusalem. The Zealots living here could see the smoke when Rome was burning during the destruction in 70 ad. Reading the bible and looking at a map it seems like everything is so far apart but places are actually near each other.
Masada is Hebrew for fortress. This fortress is atop an isolated rock cliff at the western end of the Judean desert overlooking the Dead Sea. On the east the cliff falls in a sheer drop 450 meters. The natural approaches to the cliff top are very difficult. Herod the great built the fortress about 37 bc. Herod was an Idumean and had been made King of Judea by the Romans and was hated by the Jews. He was a master builder and intended this to be a refuge. There was a 4,300' and 12' thick double casemate wall with the inner space divided into 70 rooms, 30 towers and 4 gates around the top of the plateau, storehouses, 12 huge ingeniously designed cisterns that could hold 40,000 cu.m. of water filled from two wadis to the west (the water was still usable by the Zealots 75 years later), barracks, palaces, and an armory. The story of Masada really begins 75 years after Herod's death in 66 ad. After Herod's death a small group of Roman solders stay at the fortress. At the beginning of the Jewish revolt against the Romans a group of Jewish rebels, called Sicarii, overcame the Roman garrison of Masada. Before the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the second Temple (70 ad) they were joined by additional Sicarii and their families who were expelled from Jerusalem. They raided and harassed the Romans for two years. In 73 ad the Roman governor Flavius Silva marches against Masada with the Tenth Legion (Fretensis), auxiliary units and thousands of Jewish prisoners of war. The Romans established 8 camps at the base of Masada, laid siege to it and built a high circumvallation wall. The Romans had no water-the nearest spring is 10 miles away in Ein Gedi. Their ration was 2 cups a day. Fights broke out, they killed each other and gambled for the extra water. In nine months the Romans built an assault ramp to the top using the slaves. The Zealots allowed the ramp to be built, though it would have been easy to prevent, so to not kill the slaves. After the ramp was complete, the Romans moved a battering ram up and direct it against the wall. They broke the stone wall but the defenders managed to build a wall of earth and wood that was flexible and hard to break. Eventually the Romans destroyed it by fire and decided to enter the fortress the next day.
At night Eleazar, the leader, gathered all the defenders and persuaded them to kill themselves rather than fall into the hands of Romans. The children would have been put into slavery, the women abused and the men killed had they chosen to stay. The people set fire to all their personal belongings and ten people chosen by a lot killed everyone else and then committed suicide. In the morning, Romans entered a silent fortress and found only dead bodies. Two women and 5 children survived by hiding in a cave. A Roman garrison was stationed in Masada for some time after the fall.
The Romans camps and wall are still very clear.
The Roman wall snakes through the wilderness.
This gate is pictured above.
Herod constructed the most important buildings in the northern part of Masada situated beneath the wall daringly constructed on the very edge of the precipice. The northern edge of the rock is 2-3 m. wide, Herod's engineers had to fashion an artificial platform with the aid of powerful supporting walls. The northern palace-royal villa, had magnificent views of the surrounding area as far as Ein-Gedi. It was built in three tiers, the upper one with living quarters. The walls and ceilings were decorated with frescoes. There was a western palace with scores of rooms, a large reception hall with magnificent richly colored frescos. There is a large bath house built in the Roman style with four rooms and a court. The largest room, the caldarium (hot room) had a hypocaust (heating room) beneath it. It's floor stood on 200 tiny columns and the walls were faced with perforated clay pipes through which an adjacent furnace drove hot air.
During the period of the Zealots the decorative architectural parts of the luxurious palaces were dismantled for building materials, the rooms and courts were partitioned to serve as dwellings for almost 1000 Zealots. Most of the zealots were housed in the double wall in shacks of mud and small stones. Two mikveh-ritual bath to wash away impurities, were found during excavations. When news about this find was announced, the orthodox Talmudic scholars became especially interested-no mikve had been discovered belonging to the period when the Halakhic rules were written. Two specialists carefully took measurements, at the end of the thorough study the Rabbis announced the mikve excellently met all the standards. A synagogue was discovered, at the time the earliest known one, oriented toward Jerusalem.
There were large gardens, livestock, and all buildings were plastered inside and out.
The quarry.
More than 700 ostraca were found written in Hebrew or Aramaic near the store rooms and are considered to be connected to the Zealot rationing system. Parts of 14 biblical, apocryphal, and sectarian scrolls were found at Masada. They are the first scroll discovered outside of the Qumran caves. One important find was a sectarian document identical with one found in Qumran using a 364 day calendar used by the Dead Sea Sect. This is proof the dead Sea Scrolls were dated correctly. Another important scroll, in its Greek translation known as "Ecclesiasticus."
Eleven small ostraca were found, different from all the others, inscribed by the same hand with a single name, one is Ben Yair. These were used in the casting of the lots between Ben Yair and the surviving ten people.
In the area of the Roman assault ramp were found hundreds of Roman ballistic stones.
Long narrow storerooms. Each type of room held exclusively its own type of vessels: oil jars, wine jars, flour jars. Everything was held in perfect order. The zealots had intentionally left everything intact to show the Romans that they had not died by lack of food.
Looking from the top down to the second and third levels of the villa.
The Roman assault ramp.
Model of the northern palace.
Jewish ritual baths.
The columns used to raise the floor to heat the bath.
The chambers to heat the walls.
Better look at the Roman assult ramp.
Diagram of the ramp.
The tri-level northern palace.
Ein Gedi is a spring fed oasis meaning goat kid (gedi) spring (ein). 2 Chronicles 20:2 it is identified with Hazazon-tamar, where the Moabites and Ammonites gathered in order to fight Josaphat. In Genesis 14:7 it is mentioned as being an Amorite city. In Joshua 15:62, Ein Gedi is named among the cities of the tribe of Judah. Later, King David hides in the desert of En Gedi (1 Samuel 24:1-2) as King Saul seeks him.
Ein Gedi is a sanctuary for many types of plants, birds, and animals. The plants are from tropical, desert, Mediterranean, and steppian regions. The animal above is a Rock Hyrax or rock badger. They are found all across Africa the Middle East in habitats with rock crevices. They live in groups of 10-80 and use sentries to keep watch for predators. Every language has a name for them. In Israel they are called a conni. Ronnie, our guide who is hysterically funny, told us an exotic island off the coast of Manhattan was named after them...Coney Island...
This is a treacherous environment, shepherds and Bedouin travel from oasis to oasis. Wadi, dried up river beds are dangerous flash flood zones. Sheep covered in wool and secreting lanolin need water. They will head to the Dead Sea which will kill them on a wadi which will also kill them. Jesus is the good shepherd-living water which dwells in us-the Holy Spirit.
Close up of the conni.
This is the location of Psalm 23. David fled to this wilderness being pursued by the army of Saul. A brood of losers joined him-they become the generals that defeat all the armies-they are David's mighty men. Saul found David based on where the water was-the next place is Jericho. How did Moses lead the people though the desert? He spent 40 years living in the desert among the Midians. Learn how to survive in the wilderness first. Disciple a few first before leading many. The men God used spent time in the wilderness to learn how God would use them. In the wilderness is disappointment, rejection, attacks. If you can survive in the wilderness you can survive anywhere. The Lord raises up outcasts-takes them through the wilderness, they lead 400 then 400,000. Saul knew the truth but had false repentance, he knew when David had the upper hand but repented to get out of it much the way evangelists do their tearful apologies on tv. It's a false repentance.
There are beautiful, lush, green pools here.
This area is in an earthquake zone.
I was so excited to see the ibex. Someone asked if they were real. Ronnie's reply, "what...you think this is Disney World?"
The ibex can set off dangerous rocks slides.
The mountains are incredible. We can see where the water rushes down and the deep channels that are cut through the desert.
We head north then west toward Jerusalem. The sunset is spectacular. My camera battery is died so no more pictures. What the Jews have done in 60 years to build a modern country is amazing. As we go through the mountains we pass Bedouin area after Bedouin area. They live in small shanty like structures in the wilderness. It is a very desolate mountain area. Their commodity is sheep, goats, and camels. This area is a brilliant green in February and March. We are traveling through the West Bank to East Jerusalem which is the Muslim area. The Muslim area is just full or trash. They just discard everything right into their yards. This is a clear picture of cultural difference and not being mistreated by some oppressive occupier. This is what the media doesn't show. It's been in the 30's everyday-some days reaching 34 degrees C. Traveling to Jerusalem is always referred to as "going up to Jerusalem." Jerusalem sits 2,067' above sea level in the Judean mountains. It's now 26 degrees C...burr. We stop at the Hebrew University in the east on Mount Scopus looking west being able to see most of Jerusalem. We can hear the call to prayer. We stop for a bread and salt blessing which was used to greet people coming into Jerusalem. 
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