View from the hotel lobby. Volleyball courts on the Mediterrean. Too bad no one was playing!
Beautiful Mediterrean morning.
Panorama from the boardwalk.
Tel Aviv has a beautiful coastline. Anywhere else in the world, it would be a tourist mecca.
Tourist trip for the day was out to Masada and the Dead Sea. Masada is one of the most historic spots for Jews in Israel. It was the site of the last stand of…
Masada is built on top of a high plateau overlooking the Dead Sea. A tram takes you almost 1,300' to the top.
Herod the Great had palaces here. Quite the view!
After the Jews fled Jerusalem in 70 CE, they settled at Masada. In 73 CE, the Romans laid seige to Masada to eliminate the last of the Jews. They encircled the…
After a long seige (history says 2-3 months, legend says years), the Romans built a huge seige ramp to reach the fortress entrance high up the cliff walls. The…
Herod's palace was build town the side of the clif from the plateau on top. Here's a scale model showing the amazing building.
Here are the remains of the real thing looking down from the top of the plateau.
A look at the remains of the town on top of the plateau.
An acient sauna. Hot water was poured in from underground, which would heat the stone columns and thereby heat the water.
Outside the baths, where the water was poured in.
Remains of the stonework, some of it restored.
The black line shows the original height of the wall when the site was excavated, which amazingly enough didn't happen until the 1960's.
Restored stonework and the amazing view.
This must have been an amazing place in its prime.
Great picture of the walkways carved into the side of the cliff. This fortress was definitely impregnable except for the front door.
Another area of the town.