Day 7 Monday April 22nd Holy Land Trip

The morning was spent floating in the Dead Sea and resting.

                                                        Rodja floating in the Dead Sea. 

                                                   Picture taken from 6th floor of our hotel.

 

Beach view out our window with the mountains of Moab in the background

 

Swimming pool and lounging cubicles

At 11:30 we headed north a few miles to Masada. Our hotel was located at the southern end of the Dead Sea. Masada has a rich biblical history, playing a prominent role in the uprising of the Jews around the AD 65-74 time period.  Nine hundred Jewish people at Masada committed suicide rather than be captured by the Romans and put into slavery.  

It serves now as a rallying point much as the Alamo is to Americans.

You can hike up to the top or take the cable car.  Anyone want to venture a guess how we got up?

 

 We picked up a couple of clowns along the way.

 

Model of Masada.  King Herod's palace is on the front (lower right corner of picture)

Was Joe trying to dress like some of the native people?

They were listening to Moti tell us about Masada.   

I don’t know what they were laughing about, but they were looking my way.

We need to pray that the Israeli flag will always fly from the top of Masada.

A view of the Dead Sea and the Moab mountains from the top of Masada. 

We finished our tour of Masada and again headed north to Qumran, a few miles further north. Qumran is where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in the 1940’s.  We will be going to the Museum on Friday to see the actual scrolls.

 Date Palm Trees have been planted all over the Jordan valley.

 Dale and Susie listening to Moti tell about Qumran.

Some of the caves where the scrolls were discovered.

A group of animals taken out the driver’s window as we were traveling.

The sign directing us to Jerusalem excited all of us as we look forward

to visiting many sites in this area the next four days.

 Our first look at Jerusalem and the Temple Mount area occurred as we topped a hill.  

Again my viewing opportunity was out Moti’s window as he was driving.

We arrived at our hotel, the Dan Panorama, at about 5:30 pm. Tomorrow we head for Old Town and 

will try and see the Temple Mount and other sites in that area.