Today
was another day of touristing! We were lucky enough to have a tour
guide take us on a quick trip around the city to explain the history
of the area and how it relates to the three religions of Islam,
Christianity and Judasim. We began our tour heading up the Mount of
Olives, pausing to see the Garden where Jesus was arrested. Once we
hit the top, we were struck by this awesome view!
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Mount of Olives View! |
From
the photo you can see the Dome of the Rock (check near my head!)
which is believed to be the site where Mohammad ascended to heaven
and Abraham almost sacrificed Isaac. This is just one example of a
particuarly site that is extremely important to all three religions.
It is amazing how these conflicting points of view can live in
relative peace.
After
admiring the view we braved the trip back down and left Jerusalem,
heading into the desert towards the fortess of Masada. This fortress
was built near the Dead Sea, up on the cliffs in the middle of the
desert, by King Herod. The only ways into the fortress are either via
the cable car, or up the extremely steep snaking path up the
cliff-face. I am grateful for the technology because the heat was
extreme. The view was completely worth it though. The photo looks blurry but it is mostly dust haze. In the distance on the right you can see the lowest point on land, the Dead Sea.
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View from Masada - DUST! |
We
explored this fortress, seeing ruins of old buildings, frescos and
even one of King Herod's palaces complete with his own personal bath
house! The engineering of this place was incredible, the way that
channels were dug in the cliff face to capture what little rain there
was, guiding it into large cisterns that had been hand carved with
chisels into the cliff. It was unbelievable!
|
The team in King Herod's Palace |
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Masada's Synagogue - the black line is the level at which the walls
were found. |
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A floor mosaic in the church used by the Christian monks |
|
Masada Ruins |
The
saddest story of Masada is its most famous. In the late 1st Century
A.D the Jews rebelled against the Romans. In a country wide civil
war, many Jewish people died. Their final stand was in the fort of
Masada. Outnumbered more than 10 to 1, the Jews fought bravely, but
had the fortress breached after only a few months after the Romans
built a huge ramp to reach the gates. The night their gates had been
breached, the Jews made the decision to commit suicide rather than be
captured and by doing so, take away the Roman victory.
After
finishing our tour of the fortress, we enjoyed a quick shop and some
lunch before travelling to a private beach at the Dead Sea. The
thought of swimming was very appealing, as the temperature was
starting to push 40 degrees. Deciding to jump head-first into the
experience, we all painted ourselves with the black mud (which does
wonders for your skin!) before walking into the water. Amusing
ourselves with ridiculous poses whilst floating merrily. My camera
was not waterproof so I don't have any photos at the moment, but once
I get them I'll post some up.
Back
at the hotel it was time to meet and greet our fellow delegates.
There are over 200 students from places such as Israel, China, Japan,
Myammar, New Zealand, Georgia, India, Thailand and Korea. Everyone
is so fanatsic and we had great fun “speed dating” - a game where
we have only two minutes to get to know each other before changing
partners. It was extremely fun to meet so many people and I look
forward to spending this week with them.
Tomorrow
the lectures begin. Our first lecture is called “Science,
Technology and Sustainable Development of Human Society” presented
by Professor Yuan T. Lee, a Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry. Second
up is Robert J. Aumann, winner of a Nobel Prize in Maths presenting
“War and Peace.” Finally, Aaron Ceichanover, Chemistry Nobel
Lauretae, will be lecturing on “The Personalised Medicine
Revolution: Are we going to Cure all Diseases and at What Price?”
I
will be tweeting about these lectures as they run. If you have a
question you want to be asked after the lecture, feel free to either
comment here or tweet at me (@elyse_h) and I will do my best to have
them answered.