Dead Sea, Masada, Dead Sea Scrolls

Day 3
Next morning met another tour leader, Andy, a tall nice Scotsman who had bad news about my tour. It seems that Vancouver booked me on a nonexistent tour, ending in Tel Aviv with my plane booked to fly from there. The head office said I would have to leave Jordan and catch a public bus by myself to Tel Aviv to catch the plane home it also meant staying in Tel Aviv 3 nights at my own expense in a hotel. I said that was totally unacceptable as I had paid to be part of a tour and not take a bus through the border at Jordan and Israel on my own as they were a nightmare, even with a guide from their countries looking after it. Besides Tel Aviv is a very expensive, modern city so had nothing that interested me. Andy faxed Vancouver and they arranged for me to stay with the group and end up back in Cairo and fly back from there. It meant getting a re-entry visa to get back into Egypt.

Dead Sea
Took the bus to the Dead Sea. Paid to go into a huge building with hundreds of tourist. It had a lounge chars, coffee shops and changing rooms. Put on our bathing suits, then took open jitney to the sea. On the way the bus stops while everyone except me got off and covered themselves with sticky, black mud. Supposed to do wonders for health and beauty and of course they sell jars of the mud for unbelievable prices. You then walk into the Dead Sea. It was a cold, overcast day and the water looked dirty. Signs all over saying just to float on your back and not to swallow the water as it could be poisonous. I passed on the adventure and was thankful, as when they came out of the sea they still had to stand under cold, outside showers and try and get the mud out of their hair. It was a riot as everyone kept checking each other’s hair and skin and then were convinced that it had done wonders for them. I did go into the hot sulphur baths and they were wonderful.

Masada
We got back on the bus to Masada and saw remains of an ancient fort and city on top of a mountain. We paid $16.00 to take a cable car there and back. The history of Masada was that the Jews lived there and the Romans attacked them. You could still see where the Roman armies had camped below the mountain. They used slingshots that hurled huge rocks at them and battering rams to try and break into the stone fort. The Jews threw rocks and hot tar down on the Romans. After a year the Jews ran out of water and food so they nominated 10 elders to kill the 900 people and then kill themselves, as they knew they would be massacred anyway. When the Romans took over they found two grandmothers and two children alive. It was a fascinating place to see how they stored their supplies and water that long ago and to see how they lived.

Dead Sea Scrolls
We stopped at a museum and saw the “the dead se scrolls” they take up a large room and have been carefully put together like a jigsaw puzzle and are preserved under glass. There were so many treasures to see that it is hard to digest it all