Israel:Day 5

This was a LONG day, so that's the reason for a longer post.

This was overlooking the Dead Sea the morning we left.

We got up and went straight to Masada.

What is Masada, you ask?

Oh, it's just this little mountain,

 it doesn't look too scary, right?

You could climb it, right?

708 steps and 1/4 miles straight uphill.

You could do it, right?

It was a very windy path.

I almost died.

I made it up!

(10 minutes after everyone else)

I knew I should have gotten in shape before Israel!

It was basically a place

where a Jewish settlement was in the early 70s

(not 1970s, 70 A.D.)

In this settlement,

almost 1,000 people (the whole community) 

committed a mass suicide

because they didn't want to be captured by the Romans.

Emily walked with me :)

This is the view from the top of Masada.

It was pretty!

And, we moved right along.

This is Ein Gedi.

Read 1st Samuel 24. You will find that David

cut off a corner of Saul's robe in a cave around Ein Gedi.

(He had the chance to kill him, but didn't)

This was a good spot for David and Saul because

 there is a TON of water here.

There are lots of pretty waterfalls!

Then, we made a pit stop to ride camels.

In a gas station parking lot.

I was the designated picture taker :)

This is overlooking Jericho Road,

The Parable of the Good Samaritan.

It was way different than I expected.

The road is at the bottom of this

canyon.

(I didn't get any good pictures of that,

because as you can see, there is no railing!)

This is the road that led to the lookout of Jericho Road (the picture above)

It reminded me of this verse.

But small is the gate and narrow

the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

-Matthew 7:14

More of Jericho Road....

This is where we stayed at the last 2 nights!

We had a CLOCK!

None of our rooms had clocks before this one.

It was the little things.

AND we had an American outlet.

We were desperate for something that

looked like home!

This is the outside of the King David.

 It has been there for over 100 years.

This was the only night we went anywhere after dinner.

Usually we just discussed the day and went to bed.

This night, we went down to the Rabbinical Tunnel.

This is underground from where the Temple was.

When the Temple was destroyed,

One wall remained down here.

Many people believe this is the closest place

to the Holy of Holies that was inside the Temple.

It was cool to see, but I'm thankful that

Jesus tore the curtain of the Holy of Holies when He died

and I can talk to Him by myself without a priest.

It was SO narrow. Poor Dylan (in the picture above this one)

had to duck almost the whole time we were down here.

You can see from this picture how narrow it was, too. 

This was a very long day, but SO worth it. I'm glad I

A: Climbed Masada

B: Climbed around Ein Gedi

C: Walked up to the Jericho Road lookout

D: Walked under where the Temple once stood.

If you know me, exercise is NOT my thing. It was funny, none of us were exhausted at the end of this day. We totally should've been, but the adrenaline kept us going until we got on the plane!