Wednesday, December 22, 2010

LOOOOOOONG DAY!!

So we rented a car, got up at 4:30 AM, on the road by 5 AM, heading south!!

Yesterday Austin, Callan, Brady, Char and I headed south to check out some desert sites.  Blew our minds

As we’re crusing south along the Dead Sea, we were blessed to watch the sun rise in the desert air over the mountains of Jordan on the shores of the dead sea.  It was… different… and beautiful.  We have pictures of that, but not on my computer yet.

Our first stop was Masada.  This was fortress/palace that Herod (yup, that Herod) built back in the day because he was afraid of attacks from without and revolt from within.  What’s a man to do?  Of course build a luxury impregnable fortress on top of a lone mesa in the desert!  And that’s what he did!

When the Jews revolted against Rome and it was pretty evident they were losing, a small group of rebels retreated to the fortress of masada and successfully held of a large roman army for quite a while.  It’s an incredible story that you should wikipedia or something for more details.  But we visited the remains.  Here’s some pics.

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Before we started hiking the “Snake Path”, 890 steps to the top!!

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Pretty sick to wake up to this view out your bedroom window.  That’s the Dead Sea out there.

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Looking out where the Northern Palace was.

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There was this huge water cistern that had a convenient hole so light could shine through and make for good photo ops…

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Looking out again at over the northern palace, there’s three different tiers, the one here is the middle one.

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The lower tier of the northern palace, where they would have banquets.  Here, original columns and tile work.

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More photo ops in the cistern.

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Dead sea!! Craziest sensation ever!  When we first showed up there were a bunch of Nigerians swimming in their underwear.  Super nice people.  And the salt stings when it gets in your eyes or mouth.

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The rocks on the shore look like they are frozen, but it’s the salt left after evaporation!

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Char rode Charlie the camel!!  Go Charlie Go!!

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Good ending.

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