Israel Trip : Day 5 – Tragedy at The Lowest Point on Earth

introducing our hotel for the next 3 nights!

the grandest hotel for our Israel trip.

Grand Court Jerusalem Hotel

*15-20 mins walking distance from Via Dolorosa* 

who says great things always comes in BIG package? haha..  

too bad i forgot to take the picture of our room sweet room. =(

i rate this hotel 8/10.. great service. great room. great food. great interior. great ambiance.

bottom line.. 

it’s just great for all of us. haha..

 

our Day 5 started with

Masada 

a fortress of tragedy i will say.

Herod the great built this ‘luxurious fortress’ in the middle of Judean dessert because he was just appointed as a King by the Romans. and i think he is paranoid person as well, because i heard one of the reason he built that is to protect himself if Cleopatra – the pretty queen from Egypt wants to knock them down. *dear Historian, please kindly correct me if im wrong. haha*

i think, Herod the great with his people are awesome people.

why?

because firstly, they can built their own water system. can you imagine how to bring the water from down there to the fortress? hardwork is much needed there, man.

i think if Herod the great people live in today’s life. they can be a very famous architect. haha.

they can built a sauna room as well. i always thought that sauna room is one of the latest invention in humanity. haha *lebay* i just nvr thought that they had one back in BC time. haha.

thank God now they have cable car.. or else we need to go up to the fortress by the “snake path” below.

 cant believe if we have to go thru the path all the way up.. the pipping HOT weather is unbearable. 

 

 it’s one of the room..

if you are wondering why they have the black line there, it’s for differentiating which one is the real one and which one is made to ‘conserve’ the ruins.

so below the black line is the authentic ruins. from thousands years ago.. 

the colourful thing below there is what the archaeologist found

 Herod the Great sauna room

after Herod the Great died, the Jewish people take over the fortrees as a hiding place because the Romans already took down Jerusalem.

they stayed there quite a while i guess.

until one day, they saw the Romans people are already near them, and i think they dont know where to go anymore.

and the tragedy began,

 

they decided to have a mass suicide. but they dont kill themselves.

they draw lots to kill others.

at first they draw 10 people to kill the others.

after others are killed,

then they draw lots among 10 of them.

the lucky 3 gets to killed the other 7.

and 3 of them gets to draw one last lot.

finally the ‘one last man’ gets to killed the other 2 and kill himself at the very end.

tragic, isnt it?

they rather died than being the Roman’s slave. hmpp..

 

on a lighther note..

this fortress is located not far from the Dead sea..

so we can get to enjoy the view from up here.. hehe..

finally i got to wear shorts! haha..

it’s really hard to find a place that you can wear whatever you like. 

cause mostly are religious places.

but it’s kinda pro and cons for the shorts.

it’s more comfortable, since im not a jeans person, and i got the ‘sun-kissed-skin’ moment as a memorabilia hahaha. 

 and we have this for our lunch.. 

yummy little big meatballs. hehe.. im not sure what meat was that. but just nice for our grumbling tummy. hehe.

*at dead sea sroll’s place – where they found all the bible scrolls except the book of Esther*

 

Dead Sea  

geographically speaking, it’s located at the lowest point on earth !! how cool is that ??

so as what like other tourists did.. we took pictures there..

and of course, floating on Dead Sea !!

what a lifetime experience..

i want to go back there for another float.. haha..

we only float for around 20-30 mins.

actually we want to stay longer.

it was just the pipping HOT weather that forbid us to do that..

well. i think we cant float that longg also.. cause the salt level that is super high and can make your finger *keriputss* wrinkled.

 

some rules also applied there, for example :

– dont jumpt into the sea.

– dont swim – just float. haha..

– go until half of your body is inside and squat to float. haha

– dont float facing down the sea – yeah. i think it’s make prefect sense since it’s very salty and can burn your face and eyes. haha

– etcetc. haha.

 

i tried to put some water on my forehead for my pimple..

and omaigad, it feels like pourings salt into a wound..

hurts like never before..

but my pimple dried within 2 hrs, and gone the next day. hahaha. *magic*

they also have muds there.

basically u are walking on a mud inside the dead sea..

so be careful if you go in.

you can fall anytime there.. *lirik amel*

you can take the mud apply on your skin too, they say it’s good for the skin..

so i tried to apply that on my hands..

the feeling was like applying ‘Dove’ soap to your body – the soapy feeling on ur skin eventho u already rinsed it for many times. haha

and ohh.. we can really float there.. *if some of you still thinking if we can really float there or not. haha*

because there was one point of time that i cant touch the ground anymore..

i was pushing down myself.. like trying to drown myself in the water.

but i cant ! i still float !! hahaha.

 

so, bottom line.. you should put Dead Sea on your travelling agenda. hehe

and our last stop for the day is

 

Jericho 

not much there.

and because i was just too tired of floating on Dead Sea, i just managed to take a few pics. 

im not sure whether we can still drink from this place or not.haha

that’s all for our one day trip on the lowest point on earth.

see you up there in ‘normal ground’ on my next post. hehe.. 

thanks for reading. =) 

 

facts : Dead Sea is drying up because of Global Warming.

save the earth readers, save the Dead Sea.. so we can go there to float again. hehehe. 

 

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