Churches and Ruins and Walls, Oh My...Part Two

Okay, I've been doing a little ruin-minating (...I know), and I'm ready to share some thoughts about all the ruins I saw on my (now slightly less) recent trip to Palestine and Israel.

It's strange that this section seems to be giving me the most difficulty. Part of my trouble comes, I think, from simply not feeling as though there was enough time anywhere to really delve into the historical narratives. I was really looking forward to the archeological sites on our itinerary - and each one was breathtaking in its own way.

There's also the striking difference between the slightly mythical nature of the religious sites juxtaposed against the clear, visible proof of historical events that the ruins provide. There's a sort of dizzying quality to the experience of walking through rubble that once made up a town thousands of years ago. I had the same sensation in Rome when I happened to look down a side street in time to catch a glimpse of the Colosseum - just casually existing there at the end of the street. Seeing the excavations brings to life historical narratives that - up to this point - had only been stories I'd heard or read. But now I'm walking around in those stories - not unlike jumping into one of Bert's oil paintings in Mary Poppins, I bet.

While I loved the magic and the sort of time machine-like sense of these places, I couldn't deny feeling a bit sad at each one. Most of the sites' histories are punctuated by violent periods of destruction. Sepphoris is known by a bunch of different names because it's been raided and invaded by numerous empires, and each new ruler seemed compelled to rename the area. It seemed miraculous to me that there were any ruins left to look at given this complicated past. We didn't have much time in the area, but the mosaic tile floor we saw in one structure was really impressive.

Qumran is perhaps the most well-known excavation site we visited - thanks to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the late 1940s-mid 1950s. Again, it was an abbreviated visit. But I was quickly getting a sense of how much each site is affected by the landscape surrounding it. Sepphoris was on the top of a hill overlooking a town in the distance. There were some beautiful trees and a decent amount of vegetation. But Qumran was about as opposite as you could get.

The first photo is (I think) of Cave 4 - a man-made cave where a number of scrolls were discovered. I can't fathom how exactly the Bedouins managed to create a cave in a spot like that, but the proof is right there. The second picture shows ruins of the settlement - this is probably a cistern or pool (I can't remember).

Aside from the Dead Sea Scrolls fame, Qumran stuck with me because of all the mystery wrapped up in the history. Scholars and archeologists are not in agreement about exactly what group of people once lived here. Some believe the scrolls were composed here in a room thought to be a scriptorium. Some believe the settlement was home to a group called the Essenes, while others believe the inhabitants were Sadducean. Also, there's a graveyard with more than a thousand graves, and no one can quite figure out exactly who's buried there. Most of the remains are male, but there are some females in the mix - which slightly complicates the monastic community theory.

Mysteries are fun.

We saw lots of ruins over the seven days, but I'm going to end with my two favorites - Beit She'an and Masada.

I didn't know anything about Beit She'an before our visit. In hindsight, this is surprising because the first thing I saw when we got there was the theater. And not just ruins of where an amphitheater once stood. This was a mostly intact, hard-to-call-ruins, let's-do-a-play-here-tomorrow amphitheater. Since I haven't made it to Greece yet, this is easily the oldest stage I've ever walked on. It was surreal.

That's not me.

Once I managed to pull myself away from the stage, I quickly realized that Beit She'an was one striking visual after another.

And then there was the "Judas Tree."

Allegedly this is the tree from which Judas hanged himself after betraying Jesus. Whether the legend is true or not, I couldn't deny the tree had a mesmerizing, haunting quality about it.

Even though Beit She'an has a history, it wasn't the facts of this location that struck me. Instead, what easily comes to mind about being here was the being. It's walking around in the spaces and being enveloped in the past without needing to know all the details. It's the headiness of climbing up the bluff - feeling a little vertigo kicking in to remind me I'm shaky with heights - and seeing that tree come into full view. I love stories - but sometimes a place can speak loudly all on its own if you let it.

And finally - Masada.

I wasn't supposed to get to see Masada originally. It wasn't on the planned itinerary. It was on my Israel Bucket List. But I didn't have much hope of crossing places off that list on this trip.

However - our guide announced on the first or second day that we were going to have some unexpected free time in our schedule and could go to Masada if everyone was okay to pay the entrance fee. I held my breath and willed everyone to be on board with this. It was too early in the trip for me to know how best to get everyone else to do what I wanted - that usually takes me at least three days to sort out. Luckily, I was with a fairly easy-going and adventurous group. So we added Masada to our plans.

Talk about some dizzying heights! We had to ride a cable car up to the top of the cliff. There is a hiking trail, which looked cool, but our crew was on a time crunch. I was definitely a little nervous about the ride. I mean, it's super high up there! And we're traveling in a box crammed full of people held up by a few cables. Who knows how old they are or when they were last safety-tested? But the ride was surprisingly smooth and shockingly short considering the distance we covered. And they didn't pull that carnival trick where they stop you part way for no reason.

Historically, Masada is important because Herod built a fortress here and fled from the Roman army with his family. Seems like a good idea. It is way the heck up there. And I understand the whole cable car thing wasn't built until much later. There are still a lot of well-preserved ruins along the excavation site at the top.

However, the fact that there are ruins instead of actual buildings provides a bit of a spoiler. The Romans didn't seem as deterred by this location as Herod probably hoped. Instead, they just set up a camp nearby and went about making themselves a path up the side of the cliff.

Uh oh, Herod. 

I really had to push myself with my heights aversion this one. Some of the group took a little path down the side of the cliff and around to some kind of vista. I made it halfway before my vision started to skew and the panic began to hit my knees. I made it back up to the top, sucking in deep breaths to try and calm my nerves before finding the group members who hadn't ventured onto the Path of Insanity. It's good to test fears, but I pay pretty close attention to my limits. I still had several nights where the dizziness would sweep over me while laying in bed and I'd have to remind myself I was, in fact, not about to topple off a cliff.

I'm sure there's some symbolism to be gleaned from my experiences at the ruins, but I'm going to leave this section a little lighter. Part Three is easily the section where I'm the most wrapped up in the deep and the heavy. Better to stop where I'm at on this one, I think.

Hope you'll keep an eye out for the last bit. Coming soon...