Masada, En Gedi Spa and Jerusalem

We stayed overnight at the Kalia Guest House at the Kalia Kibbutz. It was much quieter than our previous accommodations. It was raining when we arrived and one of the people said they had never had four continuous days of rain before.

Monday morning we left the Kibbutz and traveled to Masada. We went over a road that had been flooded and closed two days before. There were crews working on parts of it that had been washed out.

Masada is a huge hill with a plateau at the top. Originally it was a fort built by the Hasmoneans as one of their line of defence against invasion from the east. King Herod fortified it making it virtually impregnable. Massive fortifications, palaces and storehouses were designed to protect Herod in case of a protracted war and he built hanging gardens, a swimming pool, an elaborate bath-house, a synagogue and ritual baths. He built a wall and towers all around. There was only one path from the bottom. He stored much food and built an elaborate water system.


Later after the romans ended the Jewish rebellion in 70 a.d. a group of jews (sometimes called Zealots) made a last stand there. The Romans beseiged Masada for a year before they were able to break through the fortress. When they arrived the inhabitants had all committed suicide. The Romans used it as an army camp for a time and then the Byzantines built a church there in the 6th century a.d.


Originally there was only a path to the top, but now a cable car takes thousands of tourists to the top.

View from Masada

Herod had two palaces - one for state business and one as his private quarters. The private palace was three levels, two of them on terraces cut out of the mountain. Below is a picture of the ruins of the two lower levels.

Original paint in one of the bath houses

one of the cisterns of the water supply

The romans were able to penetrate the fortress by forcing their Jewish slave to move a sand hill so that it made a road for their seige machines Below is the road of sand.

Tile from the Byzantine chapel

After Masada we drove to the En Gedi spa to swim in the dead sea. It had seemed cold in the morning so I didn't unpack my swimming suit and missed going for a swim. Bob enjoyed the swim but complained about the smell. It rained again after Bob finished swimming.

The dressing rooms were originally next to the sea shore, but five years of drought had made the level of the lake much lower and they had carts to give rides from the dressing room to the shore.

We left the dead sea to go to Jerusalem. Some time we had entered the West Bank at a check point. Along the way we could see Bedouin camps beside the road as can be seen in the following picture.

We left the West Bank through a check point and arrived in Jerusalem checking in at the Leonardo Plaza hotel.

After supper Bob went for a three hour walk to see some of the sights, but I stayed at the hotel.