I have been there more times than I can remember. The reason we visit is to walk up through the Nahal David Canyon, to the
fresh water pools and the waterfalls. In the middle of the desert. But for many of us it is also the opportunity to see the wild life, such ad the ibex and the hyrax.

Today was no different, except as we turn in toward the parking lot a great herd of ibex was feeding along side the road. Breathtaking as usual. We of course stopped to admire these exquisite animals, who are shy but not really afraid of people.

After a while we tore ourselves away, and I drove into the parking lot, and I was lucky to find a space under a tree that would give shade to the car. One of my tourists was the first out of the car, but within seconds she jumped back in, saying: What is that? pointing to the front of the car.

There, on the bonnet of my car stood a magnificent male ibex. I never saw him, as I pulled into the parking space, but he must have seen me immediately, and said: “Well, how nice of her to park right there. I can use the car to reach the leaves of that tree much easier”.

He immediately started feeding, taking absolutely no notice of us, who scrambled out of the car with cameras in hand (in my case my cell phone), nor of any of the other people noticing what was going on. Soon he decided that the roof would make feeding even more convenient.

After 10 minutes or so, to my great sorrow, I had to chase him off the car, because he kept setting off the alarm system.  But what a magnificent experience. This is the closest I have ever been to an ibex.

We were lucky, just as we started heading back toward the cable car, we had one of the rare experiences – it started to rain. To begin with just dripping, but before we got to the cable car, it was pouring.

The shelter is built to give shade, not against a desert torrential downpour, so we and all the other people waiting to go down got pretty drenched. Still, an experience, so we took it in our stride. We also knew that within long we would be indoors, and heading toward the car.

It kept raining, but I was not worried. After all it had been dry the better part of the day.

Some fifteen minutes north of Ein Gedi I noticed loads of cars parked alongside the road, and people scrambling on the mountain side. This got me a little worried. Was there a flash flood, so we could not get back to Jerusalem? Then I saw it – the flash flood coming over the mountain. A 400 meter high waterfall in the desert.

One of those extremely rare moments. We stopped, just like all the others. My photos do not make justice to the magnificence of these moments.

And then I saw the second waterfall – even bigger than the first. The first one was absorbed by the ground close to the road. This second one was flooding the road.

Then the police came and chased us all away – no stopping on the side of the road.

Actually it can be dangerous. If the water intensifies you can get swept away. Neither I nor my two tourists cared. The view was spectacular.

Unfortunately in the end we had to move on, as did all the other spectators, but we really had an exceptional day on Masada and at the Dead Sea.

As a tour guide I am always on the road. I see the same places again and again. But every so often land and nature give me surprises.That happened yesterday, as I was touring Masada and the Dead Sea.

On purpose we had chosen yesterday to go to Masada and the Dead Sea. Weather forecast was for rain and storm, and the previous days had been just glorious. It’s always good to get out of Jerusalem, when there is that kind of forecast. At least down at the Dead Sea there is less chance of rain. After all, it only rains 5-10 days a year in the southern part and a little more in the northern part.

Despite the extraordinary strong wind we were able to see Masada in all its glory. And this time the starlings played along, and I was able to get a lot of good shots.

Just as we had finished seeing the model of the water collection system, a jerbil decided to come out and get some sun, and allowed me to take a picture of it.

But most spectacular was the view traveling back up northwards. Most of the time the water of the Dead Sea is smooth as a mirror, but yesterday the strong wind ripped up the water, so that small white tops appeared. A rare sight I could not catch in on film, but there were even small whirl winds on the water, as if the beginning of a hurricane.

The clouds were heavy over the mountains of Jordan, and I was happy that Jordan also is getting some much needed rain. There were still some sun coming through, and it lit up the clouds. Enjoy the few photos I was able to get of this.

Rare bust of Herod the Great, 1st C

Herod was born in 73 BCE to an Arab mother and an Edomite father, who some claim had converted to Judaism. He grew up in Hasmonean Judea, where he was raised as a Jew. At this time the Hasmonean kingdom, which had ruled since the Maccabean Revolt in 162 BCE, was being torn apart through a civil war between two princely brothers, Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II. This at a time when Rome was the rising superpower of the ancient world.

Around the year 67 BCE Hyrcanus turns to Rome for help, and Rome enters under the conquest of General Pompei. Herod, as his father, had early on seen the benefits of siding with the Romans, and eventually it was the Romans who installed Herod as King of Judea.

This was not seen kindly by the Jewish population, and Herod had to fight for the throne against the people he was to rule over, a fight he finally won in 37 BCE. Despite having had to fight for the rule, throughout his rule till his death in 4 BCE he strove to keep a delicate balance between the Romans and his Jewish subjects, who fiercely strived to maintain their political and religious independence and uniqueness. Topped by this was the Jewish attitude to Herod. They always saw him as a “half-Jew”, an outsider imposed on them by the Romans.

This political astuteness is also displayed in his attitude to the Romans. In his early years he had aligned himself with Mark Antony, who ruled over the eastern part of the Roman Empire, while Octavian, later Augustus, ruled over the Western part. In 31 BCE Octavian defeats Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle at Actium, to be followed by their suicide.

Herod is now in a precarious position. He travels to Cyprus to meet Octavian. Instead of denying his loyalty to Mark Antony, he underscores it, and promises the same loyalty to Octavian. Octavian, impressed, confirms him as ruler of Judea and later even adds land to the Herod’s realm.

Not only was Herod an astute politician, he was also a great economist and architect. Throughout his rule he rebuilds trade routes and industries, bringing the country to unprecedented prosperity and relative peace. Though raised a Jew, in heart he is Roman, and encourages Roman culture at all stages.

Herod is probably best known for two things: his cruelty and his architectural feats. To the Christian world he is known as the king, who ordered the killing of all male children to the age of two, as reported in Matthew 2: 16 (The only source to this story).

But in reality he was more cruel to his own family. When rumors reach him of a possible rebellion in favor of Miriamne, his beloved wife from the Hasmonean family, he orders her killed. At a later stage he also orders their sons to be killed, and later still he had three more sons killed.

As a builder he has gone unsurpassed throughout history. He built several fortresses throughout the country, the most famous – Masada and Herodion. Since the country lacked a deep-sea water port, he created one on the northern coast of the country, and surrounded it with a magnificent Roman town – Caesarea. He built himself palaces everywhere of a magnitude rarely seen elsewhere, in Jerusalem, in Jericho, on Masada and his pleasure palace and burial site, Herodion.

He donated money for many more building projects inside and outside of the country. But his greatest building project was Temple Mount in Jerusalem, a project he never saw completed.

Herod died in the year 4 BCE in his winter palace in Jericho, following long and painful illness, and short time later buried at Herodion.

Following his death, the Romans divided his kingdom among his three surviving sons: Archaelaus in Southern Judea with Jerusalem as his capital; Herod Antipas in the Galilee with Zippori as his capital; and Herod Phillip in the Gaulanitis with Banias, also known as Caesarea Philippi, as his capital.

For more detailed description of Herod, his career and his building projects, see National Geographic

© Copyright: Birte Edwards, Your Guide to Israel, January 2010

The English name Masada comes from the Hebrew Metzada, which simply means “Fortress”. And that’s exactly what it is. Rising to a height of app. 450 m above Dead Sea (app. 50 m above sea level) with steep slopes on all sides, Masada is almost impossible to attack and conquer.

It was for this reason that Herod the Great chose it for the magnificent palaces he built there. The northern palace was intened to be the family palace. Herod chose the most spectacular locations and building plan, hanging the palace on three terraces on and below the nothern point.

Within the palace compound he built two Roman baths, storage rooms for food, wine, oil, wood. Guarding the palace entrance he built what modern archaelogists have termed “The Commandant’s House”. The three levels of the palace were connected with a staircase shaded most of the way.

In addition he built the Western Palace, intended to be the palace where visitors could be received and stay. It too has a Roman bath house and storage rooms. Scattered alongside the walls that surround the plateau are additional rooms, probably for servants and slaves, as well as workrooms for baking and cooking, as stables for mules and more.

Herod also made certain that there was plenty of water. Masada’s water collection system is one of the most brilliant of the ancient world.

But Masada is better known for the events that took place on the eve of Passover in the year 73 BC. In 66 BC the Jews of Judea and Galilee had started a rebellion against the Roman Empire. For four years the rebels held out, but finally in the year 70 CE the Roman reconquered Jerusalem, an event that for all intents and purposes ended the rebellion.

The exception was a handful of men, women and children who continue their struggle for freedom from Masada.
Well, I will not give away all the details, just know that the way it ended caused reverberations down through the generations and way into the modern State of Israel.

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