Saturday, February 8, 2014

We Will Remember Masada… and not let it happen again!

Today I went to Masada, which is a historically significant place here. I admit I had never heard of it until about a month ago when the travel agent suggested that I see it. It's on the top of a large rock near the Dead Sea. The significance is that there is a large fort built on top (by King Herod among others) and it was inhabited by Israeli inhabitants. The Romans (yes this was some time ago) wanted to attack the fort and so they staged a siege. It's quite a ways up to the top so it took them about four days to get there. Meanwhile, the Israelis soldiers decided that rather than end up slaves, they killed themselves so when the Romans got there… SURPRISE!


Apparently the Israelis now have this "We Will Remember Masada" as their Mantra now and vow never to get themselves in a position where they are attacked with no way out again.

At Least I think that's what it is. I find myself sorta of tuning out when the tour guides get on their political high horse. (Bad tourist… no biscuit). It was interesting in a "hey this is a Unesco site and I'm on top of a mountain when a great view of the River Valley sort of way. But remember that I had really never heard of it.

Then we went to the Dead Sea. I've been there before in my Kuwait life, but it was interesting to see from the other side of the sea. It's only 8 miles across at this point and so I stared at Jordan (as I stared at Israel when I was on the other side) wondering what was happening over there.

This is my friend N whom I met yesterday. We were supposed to be on the same tour, but things got complicated and so we went to the Dead Sea separately. It was his first time and he had a ball he says. I stole this picture off Facebook (with his approval). I don't do pictures of myself in a bathing suit, but you can be assured that I had a similar look (covered with therapeutic mud). Today I met some fun people from France, England and Sri Lanka. Travelling alone isn't so bad if one is willing to say Hi first.

Also, we saw a Bedoin man and his young son. I am very familiar with this site from life in Q8. I sorta felt like "home" when I saw the man with his camel parked on the side of the road. He was selling jewelry and rides on the camel. It's an honest way to make a living right?!
I found that I missed seeing camels! (go figure) So I had to enclose a photo of this handsome guy. I am not sure why he was foaming at the mouth, but he wasn't making any painful noise, so maybe he was just brushing his teeth.

1 comment:

JR said...

Amazing photography.
With best wishes.
JR
http://likusiosdienos.blogspot.com