Dears,

Today's menu:
(The pictures are clickable.)

Corrigendum

Greetings to everybody! How are you? Enjoying Summer? I am - Summer is here to stay and I actually like it. Really, just look at me: .

First of all I have to admit I made a mistake in my previous report. I wrote there that Armenia was the first state to recognize Christianity as its official religion and it appears that this is not true. An old friend of my, Prof. dr hab. Krzysztof Nawotka pointed out that Osroene was Christianized much earlier. King Abgar IX [known also under other names like Abgar (IX) Rabo (The Great) Bar Ma'nu (VIII)] (177 - 212 AD) embraced the Christian faith and under him Christianity became the official religion of the kingdom. It should be mentioned that according to some legends, already king Abgar V of Edessa converted to Christianity. There are people who believe that he actually exchanged letters with Jesus and that that was Abgar V who made Christianity the official religion in Osroene. (Also, have a look here.)

Recently I have met with some of my old friends. I did mention in my previous report that Alda and Juris Steprans were here and then there was a topological conference in Be'er Sheva. (Some pictures from that Be'er Sheva meeting are available here.) It happened so, that both with the Steprans' and later with the conference people I visited the region of the Dead Sea. Well, since I was there twice I have to share some pictures with you.

Dead Sea and its neighborhood

If you have a look at the map of Israel, , then you notice that Jerusalem is located on hills. These are not big mountains (some 2,500 ft above sea level in the city), but they do have some influence on the climate around. See, the mountain range goes in North-South direction, parallelly to the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. There is some moisture coming from the sea eastward, but after arriving to the mountain range all these clouds lose their water (so yes, it does rain in Jerusalem - sometimes). There is almost no rain East of Jerusalem - there is Judean Desert there... It is mostly a rocky desert, with no sand dunes or other funny things, BUT the Dead Sea and the greatest depression are there: the surface of the Dead Sea is some 1371 ft below sea level and is going down (see here - note that Dead Sea shrinks and soon there will be no Dead Sea....).

The Dead Sea region is a source of many minerals and this is not only about the salts in water. There is a lot of strange stuff around and for centuries people tried to use some of it for various purposes. For instance, it is believed that queen Cleopatra used mud, sand and water from Dead Sea for cosmetic purposes. Many people (including skin doctors) believe that bath in these salty waters helps with many skin problems. Well, I am not sure about that - water is really salty and if you get a skin problem, you are going to suffer when you enter the sea. And I mean suffer - maybe your skin will be perfect afterwards, but your mind..... Anyway, there are several cosmetics that are based on minerals coming from this region, and the most famous line of skin care products comes from Ahava. They have, of course, a factory store just by the sea:

all guests rush inside to search for good deals    
but I was intrigued by local art productions   
- this art did seem fitting the dried environment    

Dead Sea beaches are very pebbly and not very comfortable   , so local tourist enterprises put some efforts to create more friendly access to water. Almost all those places charge you some fee, and these fees vary like the quality of services. The cheapest beaches offer you only chairs and some roofs to create so needed shades   , but some other places offer a lot of services and possibilities. Among the best and most popular is
Ein Gedi Spa
The main spa buildings include several baths, pools and likes (all with very healthy water), but they are located at some distance from the sea. To get to the sea one has to ride on a special car - or walk.
Whichever beach you choose, after you get into water you will be somewhat surprised to discover that water is not exactly water. It feels more like oil, it is not possible to swim in it and many fun activities that we tend to associate with being in sea is not really possible there:
After getting out from that oily water you may have some vision problems and you may actually think that the mountains around are so beautiful...

Ein Gedi Nature Reserve

Very close to Ein Gedi Spa there is Ein Gedi Oasis and Nature Reserve. In the mountains above that place there is a spring, and water from that spring goes down to the Dead Sea. The stream formed this way is not very big, however it is sufficient to support some life in this generally dry region. Some plants, some animals - not a lot of them, but some.
Look carefully an ibex... and an hyrax.
Water attracts also homo sapiens A couple of random pics of that lovely neighbourhood:
       
       

Masada

I think that every tourist group coming to this region visits Masada. Masada, is the name for a site of ancient palaces and fortifications on top of an isolated rock plateau on the eastern edge of the Judean Desert overlooking the Dead Sea. According to Flavius Josephus, a 1st-century Jewish historian, Herod the Great fortified Masada between 37 and 31 BCE as a refuge for himself in the event of a revolt. Masada became famous for its significance in the First Jewish-Roman War (Great Jewish Revolt), when a siege of the fortress by troops of the Roman Empire led to a mass suicide of the site's Jewish defenders when defeat became imminent.

Some Roman troops remained in the region until 2nd century CE. After they left, the fortress remained unpopulated for some time. In 5th century CE a monastery was established here and it lasted till 7th century. After that Masada sank into oblivion until 19th century.

Masada - from a distance Parking lot may be full at times
One can walk uphill - it is not a very long nor difficult walk. But a real explorer will not walk - (s)he will take the cable car The entrence to the lower cable car station:
Cable car:
A model of the fortress in Herod's times Have alook at the walls - the black line is supposed to mark what's real there. Everything below the line is claimed to be as when it was uncovered, the stuff above the line was added for tourists' fun.

Baths and water cisterns:

Storage place for olive oil: The middle terrace in the Northern Palace:

Random pics from the Plateau:

Columbarium Tower

Making walls and floors nicer: frescos and mosaics (the latter mostly from the Byzantine Period)

A floor mosaic and a wall in
Byzantine church

The view from Masada towards the Dead Sea:
and towards (leftovers of) the Roman camps:

The tools used to build the fortress:   .

That's it for the moment. The next report may (though does not have to) appear on Sunday, July 2, 2006. Best, Andrzej

PS: The Polish version of this report is available here.


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Last modified: Sun Jun 4 22:52:20 IDT 2006