The crescent moon that signals the beginning of Ramadan
Every hotel room had a sign showing the direction of Mecca
We left Jordan and re-entered Israel down near Eilat, on the Red Sea. The two preachers that we had to leave behind, Tony and Isaac, were able to rejoin us there. We took a minute to dip our toes in the Red Sea. One thing we did on this trip was to gather water samples from as many different places as possible.
Getting water from the Red Sea
On the shores of the Red Sea
Sign for Beersheba, the traditional southern tip of Israel. “From Dan to Beersheba”
The type of wilderness the Israelites wandered in (minus the highway)
From Eilat, we drove up to Masada. When I was a teenager, Bill Humble from Abilene Christian came and presented some slides at our church several different Sundays. One Sunday he talked about Masada; I’ve been waiting since then to finally get to visit this desert fortress. It was fortified by Herod, then used by the Zealots as their last real spot of resistance after the fall of Jerusalem.
Snake path at Masada
The story is a compelling one. Basically, the defenders held out for a long time, while the Romans built a siege ramp up to the fortress. On the night that the wall was breached, the Romans retired to their camps to ready themselves for the final assault the next day. The Jewish defenders decided not to go into slavery; they chose suicide instead. When the Romans took the fortress, they found that the Zealots were dead. (Supposedly some women survived by hiding in a cistern)
Ruins at Masada
Historians question the accuracy of the Masada legend, but that doesn’t take away from the impressiveness of the place. I wish we’d had more time there. We arrived shortly before closing, and our guide chose to wax eloquent with stories about the Dead Sea rather than give us time to explore the fortress. Still, that’s one item off my bucket list.
Ruins at Masada
Seemingly the lots that were drawn to determine who would be the last to die at Masada
Lines in the dirt around Masada show where the Romans camped during the siege
Siege ramp Romans used to attack
Tony Fernández at Masada
From Masada we went to the Dead Sea. The mineral content of the Dead Sea is so high that they say that nothing will sink in the Dead Sea. They also warn you not to get the water in your eyes or mouth, so we were quite careful while floating there.
It’s not every day that you can say you’ve been in Jordan and Israel, visited Masada, and gotten your feet wet in both the Red Sea and the Dead Sea.
The Dead Sea
Floating in the Dead Sea
Floating in the Dead Sea
Sundown by the Dead Sea
Our trip to Israel was made possible by a gift from an anonymous benefactor. They paid my way. The Texas International Bible Institute helped out with a portion of Carolina’s expenses. And we paid another part with hotel points and airline miles.
Tel Aviv would have cost too much, so I began looking for intermediate stops that were within our price range. We finally settled on Zurich. I had enough air miles to get us there, and the ticket from Zurich to Tel Aviv was much more reasonable.
met up in Israel.
discovered that U.S. dollars aren’t accepted anywhere, nor are Euros; be sure and get your Swiss francs! (And make sure your credit card will work… we got into a very awkward, embarrassing situation without acceptable currency and without a working credit card)