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Ascending Masada
A view of Masada from the cable car that takes us to the top.
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Masada: Herod's Western Palace
Thaxter Dickey inspects the ruins of a wall of Herod's Western Palace on Masada.
The black line he is pointing at indicates the boundary between the original
wall (below the line) and the reconstructed wall (above the line).
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Masada: Western Palace Bath
A tiled mosaic floor from the bath house of the Western Palace.
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View from Masada
Looking down from Masada: The view from the Western Palace.
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Crusader Baptistry
Almon Williams contemplates sticking his bare foot into a patch of mud on Masada.
The mud is at the bottom of what is perhaps a baptistry from the Crusader period.
I don't think Almon actually got his feet muddy. He had proposed going swimming
in the salty, oily, downright nasty Dead Sea, but he didn't do that, either.
We're glad he came to his senses.
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Leaving Masada
Doug Seaton and Dave Merry on top of Masada.
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The Dead Sea
Ann and Carter McDoniel along the shore of the Dead Sea near the oasis of
Ein-Gedi.
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Ein-Gedi
We spotted a few ibex, like this one, running along this wadi toward Ein-Gedi.
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Essene Village at Qumran
Thaxter Dickey and Pat Stagner explore the ruins of Qumran, the (possibly)
Essene village near the spot where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. You
can see off in the hills, next to Pat's head, one of the caves where the jars
that contained the scrolls were found. Thaxter is standing in what tradition
holds was Martin Broadwell's bedroom when he was a member of the sect of the
Essenes during the first century.
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Qumran: Dead Sea Scrolls
Cave Q4 at Qumran, where the scrolls containing the oldest existing copies
of the Scriptures were found.
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Jericho Watchtower
Ruins of a watchtower at the tell of Jericho.
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Jericho
Ferrell Jenkins explains to us the archaeological excavations of the tell at
Jericho.
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Wilderness of Judea
A view of the hill country along the road going down from Jerusalem to Jericho.
In the distance is St. George's Monastery, nestled above Wadi Qelt.
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Bedouin Shepherds
Thaxter fulfills his weeklong quest for a picture of the Bedouin and their
sheep.
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