Day 7 - Dead Sea

Qumran is located very near the northern end of the Dead Sea.  Originally I had hoped we could stop at Qumran yesterday on our way to the Ein Gedi Kibbutz Guest House but we were running late on our run from the Galilee to the Dead Sea. The Qumran Reserve was already closed as we passed the entrance.

This morning we backtracked about 20 miles to give Randy and Mark a chance to visit the remains of this area where the Dead Sea scrolls were discovered in late 1947. It has always interested Christian supporters of Israel that this discovery came just as the U.N. was passing the proposal for the partitioning of the area known as Palestine into two states, one part for the Jews and one part for the Arabs. This action provided the path for the independent state of Israel.

Qumran was a community of very religious Jewish zealots.  The introductory film at Qumran included an interesting story about a man named John who had entered the community and started a two year period of testing before being fully admitted to the sect. This person left the community just before completing the trial period. Later they heard of a man who had been beheaded by Herod and wondered if it was the same man.  It of course was possible this could have been the same man and very likely could have been the man we know as John the Baptist.

After a short visit we returned to the Ein Gedi area to visit the Ein Gedi Nature Preserve. The archeologist have not found anything here to support this as the location for David`s encounter with King Saul where David cut off part of Saul's robe but it certainly meets the description of the area found in the Bible.

There is a paved sidewalk to a small waterfall.  This is a shot of the waterfall with Randy and Mark. (Several people we have encountered asked if they were twins).

They continued further into the park to "David's Waterfall" while I returned to the Visitor Center. The path gets pretty rugged so I decided to return and wait for them there.

(Marks waterfall pic)

The higher waterfall has both a warm side and a cooler side. The geology explanation is that there are two sources of water with one of the springs being heated by a lava source and the other spring being away from the heat source.

As I was going back to the Visitors Center I found a Catholic group involved in the Mass. I thought that this seemed to be a strange place for a Mass. Then on second thought, why not?

While the boys continued to the primary waterfall further upstream I returned to the Visitor Center. Usually the Visitor Center is quiet but it was anything but quiet with a lot of people out for the day with the family. It is a nice place for a family picnic since there is shade on a fairly warm day.

After leaving the Ein Gedi Nature Preserve we traveled just a few miles further south to Masada. For those who might not know, Masada was a summer palace built by Herod the Great. Its location also served as a natural fortress sitting on top of a hill with deep valley all around. In Jewish history it was taken by Jewish Zealots in the war that saw the Herod`s Temple destroyed and it was a final holdout by the Zealots against the Roman army. I chose not to join the boys at the top to try to preserve my poor old injured ankle as they rode the cable car up.

While on the mountain Randy and Mark walked down what I referred to as a staircase hung out on the side of the mountain to visit what is left of the primary palaces of old King Herod.

After their return from atop the mountain we had a quick meal and then took off for the Ein Gedi beach in hope of fitting in a Dead Sea swim. Unfortunately we were too late for the actual swim but at my request they reluctantly agreed to apply some of the healing Dead Sea mud for a picture.

While they did not get to do an actual Dead Sea swim they were able to take a short swim in the inside Dead Sea water pool at the spa.