The Dead Sea

On Sunday we passed through the area known as the West Bank again, this time leaving Jerusalem and going down to Jericho (which was not very visible in the morning haze) through the Judean Desert and on to the Dead Sea. Along the way we saw several Bedouin settlements. we also saw some young Bedouin shepherds and shepherdesses attending their flocks. In the Bible, the word for Bedouin is "Hebrew." We also went by En Gedi, the oasis where David fled from King Saul.
In Biblical times, En Gedi, and other oases like it, was involved in the manufacture of a perfume known as Persimmon. The perfume had nothing to do with the fruit of the same name. The perfume was wildly and widely popular and made its manufacturers very wealthy. The recipe for the perfume was a carefully guarded secret and was lost when the sundry oases were destroyed by the Romans after the uprising circa 70 c.e.
Our first stop was at the south shore of the Dead Sea at Masada. Masada was built by Herod the Great on top of a rocky mountain as a palace and fortress. His thought was that he should have a refuge to flee to in the event that he was forced to flee.
Herod spent little time at Masada. Following the Jewish uprising in Jerusalem circa 70 c.e a group of Zealots took up residence in Masada. The Zealots made several changes in Herod's compound, among which was changing the self-indulgent seam baths to rather homey ritual purity baths known as Mikva-ot (Mikveh in the singular).
The Romans eventually arrived at the base of Masada with the goal of bringing the Zealots to their knees by cutting off supplies of food and water to the compound. What the Romans did not know was the the compound was very well provisioned. After nearly three years the Romans lost patience and prepared to siege the compound. It took some months for the Romans to engineer the infrastructure necessary to successfully attack the mountaintop fortress.
With the infrastructure in place, and their doom assured, most of the Zealots apparently killed their wives and children and then committed suicide. The story was related to the historian Flavius Josephus by a handful of women and children who survived.
After Masada we went for a mud bath and swim in the Dead Sea. what they say is true. You really cannot sink in the Dead Sea! A grand time was had by all, and the embarrassing photographic evidence will be shared in a separate post.
Our next and final stops of the day was at Qumran, the spot where the Dead Sea Scrolls were first discovered by a Bedouin shepherd boy in a cave in the 1940s. Also at Qumran are the ruins of strict monastic-style Jewish sect known as the Essenes. After viewing the caves and ruins at Qumran we returned to Jerusalem.

Father Tom

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Location:Judean Desert