Into The Negev Part 2

After spending the night in the Bedouin camp, we woke up early. I have a habit of waking up very early, around 3-4 a.m., depending if I feel like sleeping in.

I didn't. Some of the others wanted me to wake them, but I could only remember one of whom to wake up, and that was Roman, our New Jersey hailing, Polish descended Politicist. I actually got a complement that however it was I woke him helped him get up perfectly... even though he had only slept for two hours.

There was another group I think doing birthright at the camp, and they were up late having a bonfire and singing literally through the night and into the early morning. Jews really, really enjoy singing.

Anyway, the reason we got up so early was because we were to go to Masada and seeing the sunrise there is apparently a pretty big thing to do. When it does rise.

We scaled one of the two paths, I only found out later in the day that the way we had ascended was built into the mountain alongside the ramp the Romans had built to take the fortress.

The other path is actually about an hour and a half long hike, and snakes up the mountain. And from a tactical point of view, actually would have been super easy to defend.

Not going to lie, the entrance to Masada at twilight is pretty damn spooky looking,
That's San tearing off past me.

I was determined to be the first up to Masada from our group, and despite being a smoker, did alright. I didn't get the privilege however, as our Jewish hulk, Mad Max, and San San tore up the mountain at a full sprint. They actually got so far ahead of the group that they just kept going, when our kibbutz hooked a right immediately to stand at a viewpoint of the surrounding canyon.

Unfortunately there was too much haze from the dust of the desert for us to see the sun rise. Apparently the optimal time is to come during the winter or spring, when there is some rain to bring that natural smog down.

We then traversed to the lookout point, where I gotta say we got quite a sight.

But what was actually really interesting to me, was this photo;

Those squares you can see at the base of the canyon are the remains of the Roman camps; eight of which at one point surrounded Masada. What makes this particularly interesting to me is that Jews look to Masada with pride; how they refused to surrender. During the Yom Kippur war it was even a rallying cry that helped keep the line together. However, some think the mass suicide after the holdout was all a myth, because of how it was communicated by 'survivors' which there were supposed to have been none of. But when you see the roman encampments like that, there seems to be some truth that all myths are based on something very real that happened.

Here are remains of the Barracks.

A lot of people ask how water was sustained in Masada; it was thanks to deep pits not unlike the ones we explored the day before that were dug into the ground. This is the entrance to one of those massive pits.

Ruins.

This is a photo of what is left of the Roman ramp. The path to the left of it is what we ran up.

This is the spot where the Romans burned through the walls, which were composed shockingly not just of stone.

After this we saddled back and had breakfast. Our next step was off to the Dead Sea, and boy was that an odd experience.

For one, the dead sea is about ten times saltier than normal ocean water, with around 34% salinity. You can actually see the salt, the water looking sort of oily. It is very visible. And speaking of oil, it's impossible to actually swim in the water. It almost feels like something invisible is pushing/pulling you upward. 

The reason we stayed grouped together was in case we dipped our head underwater, or got the water in our eyes. Apparently the experience is super painful, and we would need somebody to guide us back to shore so we could rinse our eyes out.

For another thing, the water feels thick, combined with water of a temperature more at place in a bathtub than elsewhere makes the entire experience rather uncomfortable. It's really a once in your lifetime kind of thing; cool to do, but not that enjoyable doing.

We capped off our tour of the Negev by then hitting what could be called a shallow Oasis. We dammed it also to raise the water level, which we surprisingly did with teamwork by a bit. The waterfall was awesome. Even in the Negev you can find beauty like this. And when chilling at an oasis, one can actually see why our ancestors so looked to come to Canaan, and the hidden beauty you can find just around the corner, that so many hold dear who live here.