The Holy Lands

some Today our touring of Israel began. We rose at 6:00 am, ate breakfast, and were on our way. The first place we saw was Qumran which is for those of you who - like me - don't know the names of every place of historical/religious significance in the world is where the dead sea scrolls were found. It was an intriguing place. So it sounded like Qumran was a area settled by Jews who felt that the mainstream Jewish culture had been corrupted and felt that they had the truth. So they moved in to lives of ascetic seclusion from the rest of the world. Then after nearly two millennia Bedouin boys found some pots with leather scrolls that have the oldest most complete version of what we now call the Old Testament. Our next stop, Masada, was quite a sight. It was originally the sight of one of king Herod's many "pleasure palaces". Then in around the seventh decade AD it was taken over by the Zealots (a group of militant Jews who decided to do all they could to free themselves from the grip of Rome) and, after the fall of Jerusalem (70 AD), was besieged by the Romans until 73 AD. I'll not go into a long history - just look it up on Wikipediaor something if you want to know more, but it was interesting to see one of Asia's most impregnable first century fortresses restored to much of its former look for lack of a better word. Then we swung by the dead sea for a short dip and the drove north to where we are now (north of Tiberius, just snuggled between Lebanon and Syria).

PS the time difference here is 9 hours if anyone was wondering (again based off of MST)