Day 9, Saturday November 17, 2012

We had the morning off to allow people to float in the dead sea.  We just relaxed in our hotel  room.

At noon we left the Dead Sea headed to Jerusalem. We stopped at Masada, the mountain fortress built by King Herrod and used by the last of the Jewish rebels in AD 70 as a refuge from the Romans who had come to destroy Jerusalem. In the end all of the Jewish men killed their families and then themselves as they would rather die than be slaves of Rome.  Only 2 women and 5 children survived when they hid.

We drove through a park at Ein Gedi to see the caves in the hillsides where David hid from Saul and when Saul came in to relieve himself David cut off the corner of his robe (1 Samuel 24).  We were hoping to see some wild goats that live there but none showed up.  We did see one by the side of the road as we drove by on the bus.

We stopped at Mitzpen Yericho and had camel rides.

We arrived in Jerusalem and stopped at the top of Mount Scopus to have a view of old Jerusalem. It was already dark so could see mainly lights. Our guides welcomed us to Jerusalem with a traditional welcoming ceremony where they fed us bread and salt.  Around 6 PM we heard the Muslim call to prayer. We then checked into our hotel and had supper.  Check in was late as due to the Sabbath the staff of the hotel are not allowed to clean the rooms until the Sabbath is over.  The Sabbath is over once you can see 3 stars in the sky.