The next morning, some of us went down to the Dead Sea for a morning swim. The hotel’s private beach had a large area of the sea sectioned off; I think that way the tourists would stay in Israel. The country’s line went right down the middle of the sea, half Israel’s and half Jordan’s. The water was a little cool and felt like “baby oil.” There were little balls of salt on the floor and a few rocks that popped up from the floor, but they were not slippery. They were rough kind of like sand paper. Our tour guide told us that the Dead Sea is one-third salt and it is the lowest place on earth with the lowest point being 1,240 feet deep. As I floated out, the whitish bottom dropped down below me and a slight fear came over me, “What if something comes up after m….wait! I’m in the Dead Sea.” This was one of my favorite places: swimming between Jordan and Israel, in the lowest place on earth, pondering on everything that I had just seen. After a shower, we loaded back on the bus and headed to Masada. There were so many stories and facts about this mountain that it was impossible to take it all in. I came home and did a little research on this mount. The Jews were in revolt against Rome and fled to the top on Masada and held off the Romans for many months. The Romans gathered stones and built a ten foot wall all around the fortress. Over 800 Jews were “trapped” on top of the safest place in the world at this time. The only access to the top was the Snake Path. In the daylight, the Jews could protect the path by rolling rocks down onto the soldiers that were brave enough to climb the difficult terrain, and climbing it in the dark was like committing suicide. They were safe and the Romans were baffled and drying up in the desert.
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