Photos From Dead See Area in Israel

Here we are at Qumran. In 2000 I was able to climb up into the cave on the right side of this photo. We didn't climb up this time due to much of the path being washed away through I guess rock slides. The drop off was too risky along the marked path. There was a section where the path became no more than five inches wide with a drop into the wadi below straight down. Another point about being at the Dead See on the three days we were there....the Dead See has apx. two days per year of cloudy, chilly weather, which turned out to be the first two days we were there. In the end we didn't mind since climbing around in the desert during full sun was very tough on our third day.

This was taken on Masada in the ruins of the Synagogue constructed in Herod's time. There has been much more excavated since I was here in 2000. The headset told the history of Masada as we walked through. We were also able to walk down the steep stairs to the middle & lower terrace where skeletal remains, clothing, weapons, and even the braid of a woman hair were remarkably preserved from the last stand of Masada when the Romans overtook the Jewish rebels' stronghold in 73/74CE. It was not a victory for the Romans, however, since the Jews decided to have a mass murder/suicide living no one alive, except according to Josephus, two women and five children who had been hiding in the cisterns.

This is the beach where I was in 2000. Where we are standing was actually underwater back then. Six years ago, the water went over the top of that fence you see in the top right corner. The EnGedi spa no longer sits at the waters edge, so they have had to build a long sidewalk for the guests to walk safely to the water. At this beach, there were warning signs for no swimming since even from this spot, there is still a large drop off to the water.