After the second week of digging, we went to Masada, Qumran,
the Dead Sea, and a few other smaller areas. I had always wanted to see these
three in particular because Qumran was where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found
and a secret society lived there, the Dead Sea is famous for being one of the
weirdest places on earth, and Masada is a boss fortress.
Qumran was about what I expected; really hot ruins in the
middle of the desert with mountains that look similar to the foothills around
western Colorado. It was cool to see what they were like back then and look at
their rituals. There wasn’t much else to write about from what I saw.
Masada…the second coolest site we saw on this trip (first
being Petra, but I’ll get to that). King Herod created the site as both a
luxury getaway and a fortress in case people didn’t like him and tried to kill
him. Because Herod was part Roman, there were a lot of Roman styles in the
fortress. He was so paranoid that he had created a city, basically for himself
that could survive a very long time on its imported resources. He never had to
use it because he died somewhere else. But in first century AD, some Jewish
zealots lived there and used it as a fortress against the Romans who
eventually, through ridiculous persistence, conquered it.
Knowing the history of Masada and being there felt similar
to walking through Gettysburg or some place similar. While I don’t necessarily
subscribe to the Zionistic Nationalism that most natives who visited were
feeling, I couldn’t help but feel a bit of reverence. A horrific battle took
place there where details about horrible things happening on both sides were
recorded. I also was astonished at the prepper mentality that Herod had when he
first built Masada. I couldn’t imagine living with such paranoia that would
cause me to kill my own family because I thought they would take my throne. So
I guess you could say that I had a lot of feelings while I was there. I had
time to really soak in the essence of the place.
The Dead Sea was an adventure. When you come back and hear
about the Dead Sea, what you hear about is how you float and how the water will
basically make your eyes fry off, but there are several things people don’t
tell you about the Dead Sea. Here are a few. First, that mud that’s so special
will kill you. Walking in, I was expecting to sink into the mud, but instead it
was like walking on snow that had melted a little in the day then had people
walking on it to make it uneven, then frozen again at night. Slippery uneven
death, except at 115 degrees outside. It was by sheer willpower and a possibly
dislocated hip that I made it out to where the ground was better. Then my feet
no longer could touch the bottom and I found myself suddenly staring at my
toes.
The Dead Sea actually hurts. That’s something they for sure
don’t tell you. I mean they say to not shave for a few days before, and if you
have cuts you’ll know. But they don’t say that it doesn’t really matter because
everywhere will hurt because humans aren’t supposed to be in such a basic and
salty conglomerate. It’s called the Dead Sea after all. You know that feeling
you get the day after eating really spicy food with a lot of peppers? Yeah, it
feels like that too. Another thing no one talks about… No way on earth was I
letting that liquid from actual hell get near my eyes.
They say there is no current in the Dead Sea and if that is
the case then this next story makes no sense to me. I was floating in the
water, as relaxed and reclined as possible, eyes closed, ears just below the
water. I couldn’t really hear and I wasn’t watching and all of the sudden I sensed
something near me. I opened my eyes and I was floating in between two random
humans having a conversation. Now because you can’t really be vertical in the
Dead Sea, I had to somewhat imitate a giant squid to get out the way of these
two semi recumbent humans. It wouldn’t have been as awkward except that after I
had left they turn back to me and say, “Where y’all from?” “Crap, they’re
Americans” I thought to myself as I now cruising in my giant squid-ness turned
back around and said that we were from a University in Tennessee doing a tour.
That seemed to satisfy them for a second before they started more conversation
with me. I had to resort to conversation in a weirdly awkward place with some
humans who I accidentally got inappropriately close to. Yippee.
The next day, we had the day mostly free to wander Jerusalem
as we pleased. Well I pleased. I loaded up on an absurd amount of Arabic buffet
food from heaven and rolled out towards the Old City. I have a complex of going
to the highest places and looking out, so that’s where we were headed. There
was a church overlooking the city I wanted to visit and the Old City wall. We
got to the wall first, because that’s what you do when you enter a city; you go
through the walls first, and decided to walk around the top of that first. We
did. For 12 miles. It was awesome. Circumnavigating the Old City via the top of
the wall gives you a cool birds eye view of the different cultures mixing. The
various gates are busy to go through, but going over them is quite different,
and you could see the vendors below. It was picturesque. We could walk around
all the quarters of the Old City and when we got near the Temple Mount, we
obviously were diverted through the city. We decided we would go back the way
we came, go through the original gate we entered and go up the wall and around
the other way. Walking through the streets of the Muslim Quarter was amazing.
The tight windy streets created a feel similar to Venice, except all the
streets made sense and there were no retarded drops off into nothingness.
Fortunately we knew where the Via Dolorosa was and where it dropped us off, so
we found it and followed it again, back to our gate and up onto the wall.
By the end of the walk, we were too tired to go to the tall
church and were under a timeframe to return anyways so we headed back. I
stuffed my face with amazing food again and we regrouped for the evening before
going to bed to get up early to head back so we could dig for another week. I’m
glad I walked 12 miles. It didn’t make me super tired for the next week at
all…oh wait.
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