They followed the twisting road south from Bethlehem that descended sharply for about thirty kilometres until they saw the shimmering blue sea – the Dead Sea – against the stark ochre hills of Jordan on the opposite shore, it lay 360 metres below sea level.
Masada was a desolate rock overlooking the sea, part of the harsh mountain landscape where no plant grew, burnt by the sun, day in day out for millions of years. Following the revolt of the Maccabees a group of Jews had fled to the rocky stronghold where they were besieged by Rome’s legions. According to legend they preferred death by mass suicide rather than surrender to the Romans.
O’Connelly could understand why De Lussac had had visions in the night after being exposed to the burning sun for months is such a desolate spot.
They stopped overnight at the Minerva resort, joining the tourists enjoying a rest from their visit ritual sitting on white deck chairs under parasols as others cake themselves in mud or floated on the waters of the Dead Sea.
They donned their bathing costumes and making their way down to the seashore joined the other visitors in the water astonished by the unnatural effect the salinity of the water had on their flotation. After an obligatory shower they made their way to the hotel’s the palm studded gardens to sun and refresh themselves with cold drinks watching the tourists come and go.
‘Twenty five years ago,’ said Shlomo pointing to the sea, ‘the water would have been almost here. Now it’s shrunk by almost a kilometre on lower lying areas. In just fifty years the surface of the sea has reduced by a third falling almost twenty-five meters.’
‘Evaporation?’
‘No, mainly because water that once flowed into the Dead Sea from the River Jordan is used by Syria, Jordan and Israel for agricultural and hydro-electrical projects.’
The next morning they left to visit the site of the last stand of the Jews against Rome’s legions. A cable car led to the top of the sun baked rock that rose more than four hundred meters above them into the harsh blue sky. For the more courageous it was possible to walk up the mountain side to reach the fortress. There were few people that morning just, in fact only three other persons, an Englishman and two Finns. As the cable car climbed up they saw behind them the panorama of the Dead Sea and on the opposite bank were the ochre hills of Jordan, below them they could see the hotel and a patch of green, the gardens of the hotel and its palm trees, otherwise the landscape was threatening, O’Connelly could imagine the lives of those peoples in ancient times, a life and death struggle.
42
The Origins of the Wailing Wall
The Legacy of Solomon Page 42