Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Hi All!

For the past couple of days, we've been touring Jerusalem and taking a couple of day trips. Two days ago, we toured the Old City, which included much of the Via Dolorosa, the Church of the Holy Sepulchur and the Pool of Bethsaida. There was a lot to see, and enormous crowds, so we didn't always get to spend as much time as we would have liked at each site. VERY early this morning, several of us, including some who like me hate mornings, left the hotel at 5:30 am to try to get into Jesus' tomb in the Church of the Holy Sepulchur before breakfast. We did actually make it inside the structure built over the tomb, but got thrown out quickly because apparently they reserve that tiny space for private masses until 8 am. But, we did have some neat experiences in the church before the huge crowds got there.

Yesterday, we toured Masada, the mountain fortress originally built by Herod the Great as a palace. Later, during the Jewish revolt in 67 AD, zealots occupied the palace fortress and held out for 4 years until the Romans built at seige ramp and broke through. Then, we headed down to the Dead Sea, the lowest spot on Earth, to float in the Dead Sea. After that, we stopped at Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in 1947. Those scrolls contained some of the earliest copies of OT manuscripts, as well as other material that gives us some insight into Jewish life from the first century BC through the 1st century AD.

Today, we're heading to the archaelogical museum in Jerusalem, as well as a couple of other sights. Then, tomorrow morning, some of the group will head back to Dulles, while the rest of us will continue on to Egypt. Stay tuned!

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