Masada... the finale!

Hi again,

Rested up yet?  Well, let's take a look at the synagogue at Masada.

It was a cool experience to be sitting in a synagogue that people sat in over 2000 years ago.  Wow!  I marvel at how much history we were surrounded with while in Israel.  Our country (the US) is such a young country comparatively.



Oh look, Marc is taking a picture (or several), let's see what he took photos of.

Wow, nice photos of the synagogue with Masada in the background.  Poor Irit is standing out in the sun while the rest of us are relaxing in the shade.  What a hardy woman she is!   You can see from the pictures where the line of restoration is.  This building is in pretty good condition.  You can also see the "marble" facade on the stone in these pictures.   Also, what a great looking group we have huh?  Let's see, from left to right (not counting Irit) we have Jake, Dorothy, Victoria, Peter, Marc(in the top image), Pastor Sam, Tina, Mindy, Tracey, Judy, Goris, Fran, Jim, Anita, Ray, Mike, Nanette, Sue, yours truly, Tim and Ginny.  You can see me writing furiously in the last image trying to get down all the details.. and failing miserably.

Irit was giving us a small history lesson while we shaded in the synagogue.   We learned that the idea of a Jewish state was started by Benjamin Ze'ev Herzl.  Believe it or not, the League of Nations originally offered him a part of Uganda as a place for the Israeli state.  Thankfully, God's promises are bigger than the offer that was made by the League of Nations.  They found the area in Uganda unsatisfactory for colonization thanks to several factors.  Instead the current area was decided on.  Thanks to a lot of financial help from Baron Rothschild, land was purchased for the future state of Israel. 

Okay folks, time to get up and move on..   Next let's take a look at a columbarium tower.  Another word for  a columbarum tower is dovecot.

"Great," you say, "what is a dovecot?"  Well, I'm gonna tell you.   It's a place where doves were raised.  Now, why in the world would one want to raise doves?  They were food.  I know I know.. I can't imagine eating them either but you have to admit, it's pretty resourceful.  It is thought that their droppings may have been used as fertilizer as well.   All the little holes were where the doves could roost.  Nifty.

This is one of the fortress walls.   Quick, what's the black line mean?  Note the walls are not solid.  There are rooms in the walls.  This is where the soldiers stayed with their families.  Talk about a short commute.  When I saw these walls with the rooms, it made me think of Rahab.  Her home was in the wall of Jericho if you recall.  This gave me a whole new perspective on how her home might have been.

Now that you've seen a good amount of Masada, it's time to take you back to the first post.  Remember the saying "Masada Shall Never Fall Again"?   Now you will hear about what happened here after the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in ad 70.   First, some 1,000 refugees from Jerusalem headed for Masada knowing that it is easy to defend.   They were left alone for some time but eventually the Romans decided it was time to deal with them because they were causing problems for the Romans.  The question is how to get to Masada.

Take a look at this picture.  See the walls?  Those are the walls of one of the Roman encampments when they were laying siege to Masada.  This wasn't a weekend conflict.  This siege lasted... are you ready for this?  THREE years!  These guys were there for a while.  Remember now, the Romans also had to head off to Ein Gedi to get their water.  Meanwhile, the folks up on Masada are nice and cozy and have plenty of water.  Now, remember this wall.  Want to know how high Masada is?
Look at this picture.  See the walls on the right side almost half way down?  Those are the same walls in the previous picture from the top of Masada.  You can also see the snake path coming up the side of the cliff.  Now, the Romans might have been able to come up the snake path but alas, look at how narrow it is.  One could pick them off as fast as they came up.  Oh, look at the square to the left as well.  That is another Roman camp but the walls haven't been rebuilt.  You may wonder why they built walls around their camps.  After all, they were the aggressors and likely weren't too concerned about the Jews coming down from Masada to attack.  Nope, BUT.. how about lions?  Hmmm... they built those walls to protect themselves from something.

Oh.. but I digress.  Back to the conundrum of breaking into Masada.  Remember, this side was 1,300 feet up?  Oh wait, the other side was a measly 400 feet.  Ah, the Romans decided that was where to attack.  Still, how does one get up 400 feet?  Build a ramp.  But wait, where does one get all the wood out there.  No, not a wooden ramp (after all that could be set on fire anyway).  Dirt, lots and lots of dirt.

Here's a shot of the ramp that the Romans built to be able to get into Masada.  Yup, it took a while but they were a determined bunch.

They eventually were able to break through the walls at Masada.  To the right are some cannon balls they used to break through.  No, actually these were thrown using catapults but the final breakthrough was using a battering ram.  Victorious, they marched in to take those pesky Jews prisoners but when they got there they found a bunch of dead people.  What happened?  Well, when the people in Masada realized they were going to be conquered they decided that, rather than be slaves, they would all die.  Only two women and five children were found alive.

Can you imagine the men in the community having to put their families to death then each other all to keep from being slaves.  Talk about fortitude.  I can't imagine.  It took the Romans three years to finally get conquer Masada then when they did, all they conquered were two women and five children.  The remainder refused to be taken as slaves.

You can read much more on Masada in this book.

Before we leave Masada, let's have a view of the Dead Sea across to Jordon from the top of Masada.  Beautiful view isn't it?

Now that we are finished with Masada, it's time to head back down for the day.  We will be moving on to another location next post.