Historical Hikes in Israel

After wrapping up my last day on the dig last week, I decided to stay in Ein Gedi for a few more days to finally go hiking in Masada and Nahal David, which is in the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve not too far from the dig site.  My plan was to take the bus 17 kilometers down the main highway from Ein Gedi to Masada.  One of the park rangers gave me the bus times, but even though I get there a few minutes early I somehow had just missed the first one on her list.  A minibus taxi driver tried to convince me to get a ride with him, but he was asking way too much (though in retrospect, he might have been saying "15" as opposed to "50" shekels.)  I was resigned to waiting nearly an hour for another bus while the cab driver hung around hoping I would eventually give up and accept his offer.  Luckily I didn't even have to wait quite an hour until the next bus arrived.


It was only a 20 ride down to Masada, which is the site of an ancient fortification on top of a rock plateau in the Judean Desert.  It's possible to take a cable car up to the top of the cliffs, but I figured it was cheaper and more of an experience to hike up the aptly named "Snake Trail."  This trail winds its way back and forth along the cliff face imitating the path of a snake.  After 40 solid minutes of hiking I entered the ancient site through one of the four main gates in the casement wall.  I had been advised to purchase the audio tour so I picked up my guide at the entrance.  I then did a big circle around the whole fortress.

Masada is best known as being the site of a siege by Roman soldiers in 72 AD that led to the alleged mass suicide of the Jewish rebels holed up on top of the mountainside.  The rebels had fled Jerusalem and settled on the plateau after the Romans destroyed the Second Temple two years earlier.  According to the legend, the rebels decided to kill themselves rather than be conquered by the invaders.  However, of the 960 inhabitants said to have lived in the settlement, archaeologists have only uncovered the remains of 30 people.  The site was originally fortified between 37 and 31 BC by Herod the Great who built it in the event of a revolt.

The audio tour led me first past a large cistern that had been used for storing water and then into the commandant's house and headquarters.  The next stop was Herod's original palace that was built on three different levels sloping down the side of the cliff.  Next to the palace were the storehouses and the remains of an impressive multi-room bathhouse with beautiful wall frescoes and tiled mosaic floors.  After working on the dig in Ein Gedi where the most exciting finds were regular stone walls and coins it was funny to imagine how I would feel if I had uncovered something this note-worthy and historical.  As the tour continued, it led me past more public buildings, including a synagogue and watchtowers to the spot on the casement wall that the Romans were able to breach.  I then walked through a Byzantine Church that was obviously built hundreds of years after the siege and another large palace complex with well-preserved mosaic floors.  The final thing I saw before starting to head back down to the bottom of the Snake Trail was the barracks where people lived before the attack.  The ruins were pretty remarkable, but they had a hard time competing with the amazing views of the Dead Sea and surrounding desert far below.


After jogging down the trail and grabbing a snack at the bottom, I headed back to the bus stop to get a ride back to Ein Gedi.  As I was waiting for the bus to arrive, the same minibus cab driver showed up offering a lift to me and some other passengers for 15 shekels.  Since that was actually one shekel cheaper than the cost of the bus, I joined three other people in the back of the minivan.  I don't know whether the ride was cheaper because there were more of us or if I just misunderstood the driver's rate quote in the morning.  Either way, it was nice not to have to wait an extra 20 minutes for the bus.

When I got back to Ein Gedi, I walked up to the kibbutz to meet Nate at the bar since I needed to use the internet.  Just before 6:00pm, we headed to the room of one of the other dig participants to check out his wife's small art exhibit before going to the mini-market to pick up a few groceries.  One of the kibbutz members, Yuda, who does a lot to help with the excavation offered to drive us back down to the camp site where we cooked a pasta dinner with a portable gas burner in the small outdoor kitchen.  Nate had hurt his shoulder while doing heavy lifting on the dig site that day so he had decided to take the following day off.  That left him free to go hiking with me in Nahal David before I left in the afternoon for Jerusalem.

We got up early so we could beat the crowds only to discover that since it had rained the night before and the skies still looked ominous, the upper trails were likely to be closed due to the risk of possible flooding.  When we got to the entrance, Nate asked one of the rangers about the status and he confirmed that the dry canyon trail where Nate wanted to take me wasn't open.  We were able to go on some of the lower trails so we rushed to get ahead the large groups of school kids and Birthright tourists that were also just entering the park.  The spring-fed mountain stream we walked beside to get  to the David Waterfalls was clearly where this oasis got its name.  The lush greenery and small natural tunnels formed by overhead trees reminded me of something right out of Middle Earth.

After stopping at the waterfall, we climbed a bit higher until we arrived at the remains of a Chalcolithic Temple from the 1st century AD.  We weren't really supposed to go any farther than that, but we continued to climb up the path in search of a ranger who could confirm whether or not the dry canyon was still closed to hikers.  There was no one in sight so after stopping to rest we climbed down to the Ein Gedi Springs where a large school group was gathered to see if they had brought along a guide.  They didn't have a ranger with them, but their tour leader said he had been told that the only thing that was closed was one of the caves.  We took that as a green light to head into the dry canyon so we turned around and hiked back up the trail.

The way down into the canyon turned out to be quite steep and hairy.  Once we got into the canyon it wasn't actually so dry thanks to all the recent rain in the area.  At one point we couldn't go any farther without taking off our shoes and walking through thigh-deep freezing cold water.  Luckily I was wearing zip-off hiking pants so I was able to turn them into shorts and thus avoid a complete soaking.  Ultimately we had to leave all of our things behind in order to get to the final pool right at the end of the canyon.  By the "end of the canyon" I mean the opening that plunges straight down to the stream bed far below.  When we got there, the pool was quite full and deep, which didn't stop Nate from splashing water on the natural rock slide that led into the water and then slipping right down.  He confirmed that the water was absolutely freezing, which didn't really compel me to want to go in.  Finally I decided I would regret if I didn't do it so after much stalling I managed to make the big plunge.  Since our shoes were back up the trail and we still had to walk through some water, my feet were freezing until I was finally able to put my shoes back on.

As we were hiking back, Nate started to be concerned about the dark storm clouds overhead and was urging me to hustle since if a flash flood came through the canyon we would basically be washed off the side of a cliff.  It was hard to hurry without fear of making a misstep and falling, but we luckily made it out back out and around the other side of the canyon without a getting a single drop of rain.  When we got to the bottom of the trail we found that the gate leading in and out of the field school was locked, meaning the trail actually was most likely closed. Fortunately, we found a gap in the bottom of the chain link fence and were able to squeeze through and hike back down to the dig site.

In the afternoon, Yuda had arranged for Nate to get a reduced entry into the Ein Gedi Spa so he could get a massage to help with his shoulder pain.  Since I was standing right next to Nate when Yuda called, he got me the same deal and I decided to go over for a few hours before catching my bus to Jerusalem.  I ate lunch, packed my bags and then said goodbye to everyone who was still out working on the dig site.  As I was leaving, Esther passed along something some words of wisdom her brother had said to her before she left to travel in Romania: "Wherever you go next, that is your home."  She then said that wherever I ended up in Jerusalem, that would be my home while I was there.  I almost started to tear up since I knew she understood just what I had been going through over the holidays and wanted to help me get through the hard times with a greater sense of peace and acceptance.

Since Nate and I really had no way of getting to the spa and weren't able to walk all the way there while lugging my heavy bags, we went down to the main road and stuck out our thumbs.  Hitchhiking is pretty common in Israel and since I was with Nate, I had no real concerns about my safety.  The third or fourth car that came by actually stopped and the Israeli driver and his European girlfriend agreed to drive us the short distance to the spa.  It was my first time ever hitchhiking and it was remarkable how easy it was.  Even Nate said he was amazed how quickly we got picked up.  When we got dropped off, Nate scheduled a massage and I headed into the sulfur baths.  The temperature of the water wasn't as hot as in the natural springs so it didn't sting quite as bad, but I realized that I actually preferred floating outdoors under the sky as opposed to staring up at a white ceiling.  After soaking a while, I head outside to the mud area where I lathered myself up while a cold wind whipped around me.  I could only stand to keep the mud on for a few minutes before I had to get under the outdoor sulfur showers to wash it off and warm up.  Once I got back inside, I took one more quick dip in the baths before showering and meeting Nate following his massage.  He bought me a farewell beer at the restaurant next door and then slipped back over to the baths while I went to go catch my bus to Jerusalem.  An hour and a half later, I was rolling into the holy city to start the next phase of my journey.