MASADA AND THE DEAD SEA DAY TOUR
Before we go with this tour, please dress appropriately. Count on the fact that you will be covered totally by mud! Ah! And the heath! Take hats. And water, at least 3-4 liters! The guide takes his pink umbrella against the sun!
We’ll begin our tour descending to the Judean Desert. You and others from you group are being pickup up (from Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, Nazareth or Tiberias) by our comfortable bus with air conditioning and most importantly WiFi and you have in the bus the chance to recharge your mobiles. That’s needed for the photos and your Facebook pages while on tour!
Pay attention to your guide if he is the Dutchman. He loves his sweets and his cakes and you can see that. Some of Cana Guest House thinks that he is tour guide in the effort to lose some weight.
Anyway, we approaching the Judean Desert. That means that it’s warm (outside), and cool inside.
We are moving towards Masada. Masada is a rugged natural fortress, of majestic beauty, in the Judaean Desert overlooking the Dead Sea. Masada is a symbol of the ancient kingdom of Israel, its violent destruction and the last stand of Jewish patriots in the face of the Roman army, in 73 A.D. It was built as a palace complex, in the classic style of the early Roman Empire, by Herod the Great, King of Judea, (reigned 37 – 4 B.C.). The camps, fortifications and attack ramp that encircle the monument constitute the most complete Roman siege works surviving to the present day.
You need to realize that the tragic events during the last days of the Jewish refugees who occupied the fortress and palace of Masada make it a symbol both of Jewish cultural identity and, more universally, of the continuing human struggle between oppression and liberty. That’s serious stuff.
Ask the guide to tell his battle stories! He knows loads of them, describing how the Romans were attacking and the final moments when they breached the defenses (after years of fighting)! He’s not only telling it, also trying to enact it with waving arms and his particular expression on his face, and don’t laugh (out loud) when he is hopping and jumping to demonstrate the battles and fights!
That said, it’s time for some excitement. We will see your guide and his interaction with the cable car. That’s funny. So … we are taking the cable car, which we use to tour the remains of the Herodian Fortress.
The fortress is built by King Herod two thousand years ago. Touring the sites, we’ll revisit its history and heritage, relating to the up rise of the Jewish Zealots against their Roman overlords. Don’t expect to see the fortress as the image above here, but ruins. Your guide was there, so he can tell you about it, he claims.
Be aware, it’s hot out there. Please take care for proper clothing and a hat, but I said that already. Did I mentioned the water? When you have the luck to have the Dutch guide with you, you will witness his pink Umbrella. He claims it’s the perfect protection against the sun. If the bottles are too heavy, give them to the guide and let him drag it.
We then leave Masada and head towards The Dead Sea, one of the most toured sites in Israel by tourists and locals alike. You will enjoy a mud bath of course. Well, that’s what everyone wants or think they need to do. But why?
The most important reason of course is because of the famous female pharaoh Cleopatra. Ah! She was so beautiful. And she used the mud from the Dead Sea too, just like the guide (but in secret)!
The mud is to be so restorative that hundreds of thousands of tourists visit the Dead Sea each year, while stores around the world peddle skin products made from its mud and salt crystals.
If that is true or not, you can test it right there.
Dipping in the sea itself is also highly recommended, experiencing the Dead Sea’s unique attributes, allowing for extreme ease of floating and effortless swimming.
If you want to dive in the Dead Sea, you will be disappointed. You can’t. It’s like watching a cork drifting on water. Why that is? Ask the guide, he knows. Ask him to demonstrate.
Before you try diving into the Dead Sea, or want to swim or float, look out before it’s too late. It hurts! It hurts so bad, the guide is screaming for his wife. When you have a little scratch or wound on your skin, you will feel it stinging!
To come back to the Dead Sea mud. Take some jars or bottles with you and some bags and fill it with the mud. You can always try to force your husband or family members using the mud at home. If it is too heavy, give it to the guide, your personal donkey.
Keep the guide from the ice creams!
Well, in this tour, we don’t have time to visit Ein Gedi and the Qumran caves, so the bus will pass those sights and you and the guide may wave at it. Ein Gedi is an oasis in the desert and a green Garden of Eden in the wilderness and as you will see, it’s situated on the shore of the Dead Sea. Three years ago, the guide managed almost to drown into a waterfall of 30 cm. Ask him about it. He will claim a 2 km. waterfall.
In the Qumran caves, near the Dead Sea, archaeologists dug up the oldest Bible (the Dead Sea Scrolls). Before the guide was a guide and in training, he was the only one who lost his way in the caves. Now he knows them all!
And we pass the impossible ancient city of Jericho. Archaeologists dug up so many cities that they lost count. It’s said that Jericho is the oldest city in the world; 9000 BCE.
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