Study Tour 2013: Qumran to Jericho.

This morning we left our hotel and headed directly to discover the secrets of Qumran. The secret of Quran came in clay jars that were found in the caves near the Dead Sea. The clay jars contained what is known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Dead Sea Scrolls are the books of the Bible – the Old Testament. The find was very significant as it proved the authenticity of the Old Testament over the past 2000 years. Books such as Isaiah found in the cave on parchment were very well preserved and virtually identical to what we read today. The Hebrew is still readable by the modern Israeli.

The next stop was the fortress of Masada where after Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD by the Roman army 900 Jews sought refuge at the top of a hill. King Herod built the palaces at Masada. Unfortunately the Romans wanted to clean up any last resistance in Israel. The Romans turned to Masada. Firstly, the Romans tried to besiege the inhabitants of Masada . The inhabitants of Masada had at least 4 years of water and great stores of food. Being inpatient with the Masada inhabitant, the Romans used slaves to Israeli slaves to build a earth ramp on the West side of Masada to reach the Jews held up in Masada. After 9 months the ramp was completed and Roman soldiers were able to reach the Jews in Masada. Instead of being tortured and killed by Roman soldiers the Masada Jews chose to die by their own hand. Only two woman and 5 children escaped. The two woman reported what happened. The Jews chose to die free rather than die as a conquered people.

We had lunch at Masada, another local Kebab. After lunch we headed for swim and mud pack at the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea water was very salty and felt oily. The black mud was smooth and fun to apply. I’m sure my body is at least 10 years younger.

On the way back to the Hotel we visited the city of Jericho. In Jericho we stopped at the Jericho Tell. (A tell is where a city is buried.) From the tell we visited a glass shop. All the glass in the shop was hand blown. I did purchase some Sycamore tree nuts. The nuts look a bit like pistachios and taste like sweet biscuits.