Day 7 in Israel 🇮🇱.
Today we woke up at 3am in the morning so we could go to Masada and do the sunrise tour.
We left Jerusalem at 4am and travelled 90 minutes to get to bottom of the hill at about 5:30am and start our climb that takes 45 minutes to one hour. We left still at night and light started to appear about 20 minutes into our climb and by the time we got to the top the sun was out over the Dead Sea.
The Masada story is an amazing one and it refers to events that happened at Masada (Hebrew: מצדה metsada, "fortress") which is an ancient fortification situated on top of an isolated rock plateau, akin to a mesa.
Between 37 and 31 BCE, Herod the Great built a large fortress on the plateau as a refuge for himself in the event of a revolt, and erected there two palaces.
After Herod’s death and the annexation of Judea, the Romans built a garrison at Masada. When the Great Revolt of the Jews against the Romans broke out in 66 A.D., a group of Jewish people known as the Sicarii, led by Menahem, took over the Masada complex.
With Jerusalem in ruins, the Romans turned their attention to taking down Masada, the last community in Judea with 960 rebels, including many women and children. Led by Flavius Silva, a legion of 8,000 Romans built camps surrounding the base, a siege wall, and a ramp on a slope of the Western side of the mountain made of earth and wooden supports.
After several months of siege without success, the Romans built a tower on the ramp to try and take out the fortress’s wall. When it became clear that the Romans were going to take over Masada, on April 15, 73 A.D., on the instructions of Ben Yair, all but two women and five children, who hid in the cisterns and later told their stories, took their own lives rather than live as Roman slaves.
Masada is not only important because it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site or an ancient fortress occupying a breathtaking, strategic location high on a flat plateau above the Dead Sea, but because of its symbolic importance of determination and heroism which continues to this day with many Israeli soldiers sworn in here.
WE LOVED MASADA AND WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT.
After Masada, we visited the Ein Gedi oasis and nature reserve. To be surrounded by desert and yet have waterfalls around is amazing. We even walked under a waterfall.
We then ended our tour by having a dip in the Dead Sea. And yes we did the all mud thing and this evening our skin felt 20 years younger 😉.
It was an AMAZING day where we did lots of exercise, interacted with God’s beautiful nature and were awed by the example of men.
Facebook post for the day
Click HERE for all the photos and videos of this Day
No comments:
Post a Comment