Port 47 Haifa, Israel

by Ed · April 18, 2022

Shalom,

For the second time, we approach an Israeli port in the darkness, early on Apr 11th, 2022. Fortunately the sun tried to lighten the skies before we reached the breakwaters.

We are docked behind the Norweigan Jade. She’s not a big ship, but carries just under 2,900 passengers when full.

We have an excursion today! We’re going to see the tower city of Masada, and “swim” in the Dead Sea.

This is the first thing we see when we head into town!

Our tour guide, Inez, convinces our driver, Amir, to do a quick spin by the Ba’hai Gardens. Fortunately there is a traffic circle in front, and Amir took two turns around so everyone had a chance to see. These gardens step up the hill and are beautiful! Nice addition to this tour!

We pass by the archeological dig at Miggedo. This is a “tell” site – one that is layers of buildings that are built over other felled buildings. This is interpreted to be the site that the book of Revelation says will be the final battle. The army at Migeddo is called “Har Miggedo.” From this we derive “Armaggedon.”

On this side of the mountains the views are lush and green. It is still difficult to comprehend that 20 minutes later…

…we’ll be in full desert, just on the other side of the ridge line.

On our way to Masada we pass a few interesting displays near the highway. Here are a couple that I captured in one photo.

Sheep herding is still a way of life here. This is a classic scene of the shepherd wathing his flock!

We have to pass checkpoints each time we pass between Israel and the West Bank. Pretty interesting! We do this four times today.

Finally the flat top mountain of Masada comes in to view!

King Herod found this place to build his getaway palace. He used this place to decompress. Long after he stopped using it, a group of Sicarii Jews led by a man named Eleazar took refuge here to escape the brutality and slavery of the Roman empire. The Romans took extraordinary steps to capture the Jews – over 1,000 of them – but the Jews chose suicide as free people over life in slavery to the Romans.

Inside the visitor center is a 3-D model with these plates with the descriptions Josephus Flavius wrote a few decades after the Masada seige by the Romans. It is from his writing that the world knew to look for this site.

This model demonstrates the Masada mountain satisfies the description. You can see the “path they call the snake” weaving its way up this face of the mountain. Also pay attention to the light line that can be seen from the lower center to middle right of the photo, and squarish boxed areas near that line.

This is the side that the Romans attacked. That thin line I called out previously continues on this side, and there are more squarish boxes made with those lines that mark the wall and garrisons discussed in the previous panel. The sharp edge just left of center represents the ramp the Romans built to attack the gate with a battering ram.

Now we take the ride to the top!

The gondola doesn’t quite reach the top. We have a bridge to reach the actual entrance. Pretty cool views from the bridge!

You clearly see the “snake” trail that people can choose to walk up or walk down instead of taking the gondola.

On top there are four tents set up with a model like this for tour groups to get the lay of the land on top. We have our briefing and head over to the palaces on the far left end of this model.

This is part of the commander’s quarters.

This is a room in the main square that had original wall paintings that were saved. The black line on the wall indicates where the top of the wall was when the site was found. Material from the site was used to rebuild the upper walls to provide a better idea of what the site actually looked like.

This is a storage room – one of many for the site – to store the food and supplies needed to survive. Again, the black line indicates where the wall stood when the site was found.

The view is incredible from up here! This is the view to the east – the Dead Sea! You can clearly see the land bridge between the northern Dead Sea on the left and the southern Dead Sea on the right. The Dead Sea has dropped hundreds of feet in the last several decades, revealing this land bridge.

This is what Herod’s Palace looked like, stepping down the pointy end of the mountain.

This model shows the three tiers really well!

Tile floors still exist on the upper tier!

The upper level still has parts of columns and the curved portico.

Looking down, the second and third tiers are still visible.

Looking over the side you can see the dark brown line of the walls the Romans built to keep the Sicarii Jews from escaping. The wall goes all of the way around the mountain, and around the location of every Roman army garrison encamped to hold and take the hilltop. This is the “light line” that I called out in the earlier model views before we took the gondola up.

It was these walls and garrison sites that earned Masada a slot on the UNESCO World Heritage list. I was truly disappointed to hear this, that Masada was not included for the history of the site on top of the mountain!

Looking across the top on the Palace end you get a better view of the bunches of storerooms.

Then there is a huge, wide open space between the structures. If you want to play soccer here, just don’t kick the ball over the edge.

This was used as the synagogue.

This room is where the many documents and Dead Sea scrolls were found that the Romans found around the site and stashed here.

This is a view looking down the ramp the Romans built up to the gate. This was an amazing feat! Can you imagine a huge battering ram on wheels being hauled up this ramp?

Coming back down from the mountain! I would have loved to have walked down, but we didn’t have that much time… bummer!

Next, we’re at the Dead Sea!

The shore is lined with salt crystals – some small, but some as big as marbles and hard as rocks!

We went for a swim – well, more like a float. But it was painful walking out over the huge marble salt crystals!

Joy learned that just laying back and floating out is the best way to get away from the salt crystals! I joined her shortly after this – I just wasn’t gonna take my camera out there! Lesson learned – wear thick-soled water shoes!

On the way back to the ship the water was glass, and this reflection was perfect!

The coastline was beautiful! The water colors are gorgeous, the salt line make a nice contrast, and the layers of the shore are intriguing!

Across the sea I can see a city on the Jordan side! In the morning the mist was so thick we could barely see the mountains!

This had me laughing! First, the shepherd appears to be asleep sitting sideways on his donkey, his back to the sheep. Second, there is a dog rolling on the path, scratching his back!

Next to the sheep was a herd of goats, being tended by the guy on the horse waving at us! The dog is still laying in the path!

Back at port, here is my gratuitous shot of Insignia! We’re spending the night here, so we get to go out again tomorrow!

This time we’re going out to tour Mount Carmel – the mountain that the city of Haifa sits on – and a city called Zippori, the Sea of Galilee, the baptismal site on the river Jordan, and the Golan Heights! Pretty full agenda for today, huh?
Remember this?

We come by the Ba’hai Gardens again! I included this so you can remember it. Next, I’ll show you the view from up above!

Here’s the view of Ba’hai Gardens from above! Isn’t this stunning!

OK, time for the sun to come out of the clouds so we can see Haifa!

At Zippori we first look at the clever water supply system they built. This is a cistern in the mountain on the Zippori side of the valley. A water source on the other side of the valley was connected down the mountain, then back up to this site. Since water levels out, this cistern stayed full! There is more engineering to the story, but I’m not gonna go into all of the details here.

But I do include this lower portion of a plaque. I love that it says “You are here”!

Next we are visiting the acual city of Zippori. This is a map of how the archeologists believe it looked.

We head down the major street. This street is called Decomaxus – the street that supplies were sold on.

Then we reach the crossroads – true crossroads, unlike the Phoenecian roads we saw at Nora – and the main cross road here is Cardo Maximus, where the main shops were!

Cardo Maximus was lined with tiled sidewalks on both sides! They have these tiled messages, but I don’t have a translation to share.

The rocks on Cardo Maximus are visibly grooved with cart tracks!

We visit a home with a beautiful tiled floor! There are several legends and stories in this floor.

One look across the site as we head uphill shows how large this site is currently. The roofs on the right cover the tilework shown above.

P.S. that red thing in the middle is an actual chariot!

At the top of the hill is the home of a very wealthy woman! We vist that first, then the tall building in the background.

This woman had a beautifully designed tile floor in her living room! It pays homage to Heracles and Dionysus! Plus there is a special image…

…believed to be a portrait of the homeowner!

She demanded that the home have a personal toilet. The Greek letters spell out the word for “hygiene”! She has running water to take waste out of her house!

Next we climb to the top of the tower. We get a great view from here!

But I only want to call out Nazareth. This is the city where the water source is located that feeds Zippori. This is also the city that Jesus spent most of his formative life in.

Next we visit Yardenit. This is a site on the Jordan River where baptisms are performed. Even though it is not likely John the Baptis baptised Jesus here, this is the site commonly cited for that act.

There are two groups here today – one from Columbia, South America, and one from Indonesia!

We see a few of the baptisms. These were done with the person squatting down to get their head underwater.

From Yardenit we continue east to the Golan Heights! We follow a very twisty highway on the edge of Jordan, and actually do cross into Jordan briefly on our way up! That green stuff in the distance is Jordan.

Near the top we stop at “The Bunker” overlooking the border between Israel and Jordan. Syria’s border come close somewhere here, too! This bunker was fascinating! There are machine gun emplacements all around, and one armored spot at the far left that appears suited for a bigger gun with a periscope port.