The Fortress of Masada and Entry to Jordan

 

Roman siege camp below Masada

Driving south along the Israeli side of the Dead Sea, just about at its southern end, you look west to see the high sandstone butte that is Masada.  This is where a group of Jews withstood a Roman siege for months in the first century AD, until the Romans built a siege tower atop a narrow ridge and battered their way into the fortress.  A chronicler writing 100 years later said nearly 1000 Jews committed suicide at Masada rather than become Roman slaves, but archaeologists have found only 28 human remains, so the story is a bit murky.  What we do know is that the Jews in Judea had rebelled against the harsh Roman rule and that a final contingent of these rebels made their last stand at Masada.  All around Masada are the remains of Roman siege camps where soldiers stayed until their assault on the fortress.

Dead Sea and desert from top of Masada

Guard houses and storage rooms

During the first century BC, King Herod built a palace on the site, with 3 layers of the palace cascading down the cliffs on one side of the mesa.  There are the ruins of store rooms, cisterns and 2 temples on the site, with several Roman mosaic floors and painted frescoes.

Today, Masada is a major tourist attraction in Israel, with a cable car making it easy to get to the top of the mountain.  Several years ago, we visited here and found the line for the return cable car too long for us, so we walked down the snaking trail to the bottom.  Many people climb to the to of the butte along the same steep ridge the Romans used in their final assault on Masada.  

Herod's bath house

The views of the Dead Sea below are beautiful, if usually a bit murky from blowing dust and sand.  The area along the Dead Sea is full of sink holes which you can see from the summit and from the road that runs along the west side of the sea.  These have forced rerouting of the road in several places and caused an entire resort to be abandoned because its buildings were collapsing into the huge sinkholes upon it was unwittingly built.

Roman mosaic in Herod's palace

We crossed into Jordan across the Allenby/King Hussein Bridge, just north of the Dead Sea.  There were very few people at the Israeli border station, except for a couple of officials rudely shouting orders and demanding documents.  To get to the Jordan border station, you have to drive about a mile, across the trickle that is now the Jordan River.  Our Jordanian bus met us outside the Israeli border station to take us across the border, but there is also a regular shuttle between the 2 stations, so it’s an easy crossing.

On the Jordanian side, you go through Jordanian immigration.  Fortunately for us, Jordan had just dropped its requirement for a PCR test for entry and another PCR test upon arrival.  So, we proceeded to Amman with ease.  

Sink holes dot the desert by the Dead Sea