Ashdod, Day II

Tuesday, November 17th
Route of the Ancient Traders
Day 7
M/S Nautica
Ashdod, Israel
Showers/Clear – 70 Degrees

After overnight and early morning rains, we disembarked the ship to mostly clear skies at sunrise.

Our guide for the day was Sandy Kuttler. Easily the best guide we have ever had. He was born in New Jersey and moved to Israel to live on a kibbutz 21 years ago. He is an authority on Judaism and Israeli history and the consummate story teller. We were in good hands.

As we drove East through the coastal plain and into the Negev desert, Sandy told us about agriculture in an arid climate. Israel is one of only four countries in the world (the others being the US, Canada, and Argentina) capable of producing all of the food and nutrients required by its people without having to import anything. Israelis invented drip irrigation and other innovations in agribusiness that allow them to make the most of the available resources.

Overlooking the Dead Sea and Jordan to the East, is Masada, a mountain fort that is now a national Jewish shrine.


Recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site, this is the most spectacular ancient archaeological site in Israel. We rose 1,000 meters from the shores of the Dead Sea to the top of the mountain on a cable car.

The fort was built by King Herod the Great between 37 B.C. and 31 B.C. The crowing achievement is Herod's three-tiered palace.

There is also a synagogue, a complex of baths, storerooms, and a system of water cisterns that are still to this day considered an engineering feat. The fort is surrounded, above and below, by walls.

The site was discovered and excavated in the sixties. It is remarkably well preserved and well presented. When the ruins were reconstructed, a black line was painted along the rock. Everything below the black line is original construction. Above the line is new construction.

This was the last outpost of resistance in the first Jewish revolt against the Romans in 66 A.D. Nearly a thousand people clung to the mountaintop when the Romans came to sack them. They built a ramp up the side of the mountain and a siege machine to take the fort. The Jews saw them coming. Rather than face rape, torture, and murder at the hands of the Romans, the Rabbis delivered their people to God. The men sacrificed their wives and children. They drew lots and sacrificed themselves. The last man standing set fire to the fort and fell on his sword. The Jews knew that they could not defeat the Roman army, so they did the only thing they could to remain “beyond the reach of Rome.”

The Dead Sea is the lowest point on earth, 3,600 feet below sea level. It is the saltiest body of water in the world, 11 times saltier than the Atlantic Ocean. It is also rich in other mineral content.

Like the Sea of Galilee to the North, the Dead Sea is actually a lake. The Jordan River flows in, but there is no outlet. The water is left to bake and evaporate in the sun, concentrating the salt and mineral content. It is called the “Dead” Sea because nothing can live there. There are no fish, no sea weed, no plankton. Only one microbe is able to survive in the extreme salinity. They harvest it and use it to make beta-carotene for nutritional supplements. The Dead Sea has always been a place of pilgrimage for the afflicted and is still thought to have medicinal benefits as a health spa. In fact, patients from all over Europe come to the Dead Sea for months-long treatment for diseases like psoriasis and all of their expenses are covered by insurance.

We stopped for a buffet lunch at the Crown Plaza Hotel on the Western shores of the Southern basin of the Dead Sea. After lunch, we received a towel, a bar of soap, and a locker key so we could go for a swim.

Tres has been looking forward to this. The salty water is the most buoyant on Earth. You weigh less in fresh water than on land, less in salt water than in fresh, and less still in the Dead Sea. Tres is a svelte 250 pounds here. He may never leave.

The hotel has fresh and salt water pools, but we went straight for the beach. It looks like any other beach as you walk down from the pool deck and onto the sand. As you get closer to the shore, you see that there is a rim of white between the sand and the water. It’s salt.

You have to wear sandals. The salt is hard and crusty beneath your feet. Immediately, you notice a difference in the water. It is harder to move through. As you get deeper, it is almost impossible to walk. Finally, you give up and let yourself fall. You don’t sink. You can’t. You stay almost on top of the water, just barely submerged. You lay on your back and float without effort. You try to flip onto your stomach, but it’s hard to roll over. You try to get vertical, but you have to churn and churn to get your feet underneath you. You can’t really swim, you just float. The water is more viscous and slippery than you are used to, like mineral oil. Literally. If you get it in your eyes there is no relief. You can’t rub them or rinse it out. You just have to wait until your tears dilute the salt. And you don’t want it in your mouth. It is unimaginably salty. In shallow water, you dig your hands into the bottom and pull up handfuls of rock salt. The bottom is covered with rocks of salt six inches deep. The salt gets caught between the soles of your feet and your sandals. There is a ramp that makes it easier to get out of the water. It is caked in salt. Your skin has an oily sheen and stays soft long after you are out of the water.

Floating in the Dead Sea was an otherworldly experience. The buoyancy and viscosity actually made it harder to move. Great exercise and a total trip, but not very relaxing.

We rinsed and dried off for the ride back to the Mediterranean, where the salt water actually feels like water. Tres is still scraping salt out of his ears. This is one we won’t forget.

Israel is an amazing, inspiring place. From the message of everlasting life espoused by three major communities of faith to the Utopian vision of this life lived on the kibbutz. It is also a place of great sadness where politics and religion fail to provide peace and salvation to their people. In a land with so much history, the future remains very much in doubt. There is so much more to learn and tell, but it is time for us to move on.

Next stop: Alexandria, Egypt