BYU Jerusalem: Dead Sea Field Trip Dec 3

Today was an awesome field trip. We started at Masada, one of Herod's fortresses. This is located at the southwestern part of the Dead Sea up on the cliffs. There is a part of the cliff that sits like an Island away from the cliff face where Herod built a fortress and palace. This place was awesome, we took the cable cars up then we had a self guided tour of the place. It is massive! The view was awesome, overlooking the great rift valley and the Dead Sea. There was a picture of Michael Jackson on our self guided tour packet where he took a picture when he visited here, naturally I hunted it down and found the place. A few students ran down the snake path while we all went down the cable cars, it was a long hike and they ran down the whole time, they were super sweaty after that. We then went to the Dead Sea and swam/floated in the water. I was giggling like a little school boy. It was so weird to float so much. The Dead Sea is 1400 feet below sea level and contains around 33% salinity where the ocean is about 3.5%. It was absolutely incredible how salty it was. I got some water in my eyes and I was out for 5 minutes. I was paddling around on my stomach as if I had a surfboard underneath me. It was crazy. We then went to Ein Gedi, a site where two wadis deliver spring water that travels from the Judean hills down the great rift valley. There were a bunch of waterfalls which were very refreshing compared to the Dead Sea. This place was awesome, I lost my LA Kings hat here though which is very unfortunate. I was really impressed with the refreshing waterfalls here in the great rift valley, such a dry and desolate place, then all the sudden a sweet set of waterfalls. After En Gedi we went to Qumran, the site of the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found and the civilization of the Essenes. I love the Dead Sea Scrolls, I am very interested in them and the things we learn from them. The Essenes were kind of elitist Jews who believed that the Sadducees had corrupted Temple worship and that they were the righteous Jews. They had their own community, rules, practices, and policies. We only got to see Cave 4, there are 11 or so caves. We did get to see the ruins of their settlement.