Day 10 - The end!

Qumran

Our last day in Israel was a busy one, filled with lots of very famous sites. The first we went to was Qumran, which is where they found the Dead Sea Scrolls. On our way there, I saw my first desert. Pretty much blew my mind.

When we got there, we learned about the community of men who lived there and worked in copying the scrolls. The photo below shows one of the caves where the scrolls were found.

Masada

Where do you even begin with the story of Masada? Masada is a site in the middle of the desert where Herod (“The Builder King”) decided he wanted to build a fortress/city on top of a mountain. And I really mean a mountain. We took a cable car to get there. This climb put Lehigh to shame (though I do think APG should look into getting cable cars to run from Brodhead to the UC for me next year :P ).

After somehow miraculously building this fortress, it gets taken over by a group of Jewish extremists. Their reign doesn’t last long, though, because two years later, Masada is surrounded by Roman forces. They built a giant ramp up one side of the mountain to the fortress and used a battering ram to break in. Legend has it that when they got there, they found that everything was set on fire and that all the inhabitants had committed a mass suicide. There is very little evidence of this, though, so it is often treated as a myth.

I included the photo above just to give more of an idea of the type of terrain that Masada was built on.

Dead Sea

I would argue that going to the Dead Sea was probably the most touristy thing we did in Israel. It was also super fun. We covered ourselves in mud, floated in the Dead Sea (yes, you really float!), and then took sulfur baths. Not a whole ton to say about it, but I’m very glad I experienced it. Never in my life did I think I would swim in the Dead Sea before I even got to the Pacific. :P

Dinner in Abu Ghosh

On our way to the airport, we went back through Jerusalem and had dinner at Abu Ghosh, which is the oldest Muslim neighborhood in Jerusalem. Way back in the day, the neighborhood acted as a giant toll booth, charging everyone who passed through on their way to Jerusalem from Jaffa. Dinner itself was great—lots of different things to choose from, and officially my last felafel and hummus in Israel. I also had chicken and tried a bit of lamb. Perhaps most of all, I miss the awesome pita/breads they have at every meal.

The End

And so ends my trip to Israel. We had our flight back to Newark from Ben-Gurion, and after a slight delay all went as planned. I slept for the majority of the flight, which probably explains why my jet lag was never that bad at home after the first day (a few mornings waking up at 5am, but it wasn’t awful).

I think it’s only fitting to end my official account of my trip with this guy…