Up early (again), on the bus for 2 hours and arrived at another one of King Herod's palaces.  All I can say is that the man was a paranoid genius!  His architectural work and his city planning skills were amazing!  I don;t particularly care for his politics, but......  Masada was to be his winter palace (actually, he built 2 palaces, because the views were so amazing from the east and the west) but believe it or not, after they were built, he NEVER came.  So for 3 years the Roman Soldiers waited - with filled cisterns of water, full store rooms, and 115 degree heat and the King was a no show!  The story of the Jews and Masada is very sad - if you don't know it, you should google it!  

This is the "at sea level" camel marker! The Dead Sea is 1300+ feet below sea level!

  One of the caves at Qumran!!!  Home of the Dead Sea Scrolls!

In order to get to Masada, you have to take a cable car - this photo is looking down as we ascend up to Masada.  Then my camera ran out of battery, so there are no photos of Masada itself - but I will get some from the other group members!

Our Dead Sea Mud baths!!  For the first time in his life, Paul floated!!!  And now our skin is very soft!!

Paul doing his "Wise Man" pose.  We stopped to ride camels - the ride lasted no more than a minute!  However, the camel's getting up and laying down, was the scariest part!  You'll have to come to the 2nd hour on Sept 20 to see the photo of me on the camel!!

This will be the last blog I write.  Tomorrow the tour officially ends and then we leave on Sunday.  This has been the journey of a lifetime and we will never forget it!  Our minds are filled with new information and new perspectives on so many things!  And on top of all the learning, we had a blast!