May 16 Where The People Beat Their Feet Upon......

Today we visited Qumran, King Herod's fortress in Masada and floated in the Dead Sea. We also got to do what our mother's never let us do, get messy and play in the mud, at The Ein Gedi Dead Sea spa!  Diana R.

The Mud People

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Qumran-why would you ever want to live here? The middle of a desert, no local food and no water. They came here to escape what they considered the corrupt temple system in Jerusalem. They built large cisterns to store the floods that came down the dry wadis a few times a year. In the end they were wiped out by the Romans who considered them part of the revolt in Jerusalem. Peaceable people who wanted to share quiet community, the right way, by themselves

Dead Sea - what can you say other than fun , fun. The biggest danger was falling asleep whe floating on your back. Oh and mud , the oh so ooey, gooey black mud. Your skin felt like silk afterwards

Masada-proof positive that Herod was powerful and quite mad. Even if the suicide pact story is but a story, the fact of the zealots holding out for years is an awe inspiring story.  Russ P.