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1972 July 31 Dear Aunt Grace, I recieved your most welcome letter after returning from a three-day tour of the Judean Desert and Jerusalem. What a trip it was! We went first of all directly east to Masada on the Dead Sea. I don't know if you've ever heard of it, but Masada is a huge, flat-topped mountain which was the last fortress to be taken by the Romans in 73 AD. Herod built two gorgeous palaces there --- the ruins consist mostly of broken columns, fragments of wall frescoes and floor mosaics, but they give you a good idea of how beautiful it all must have been. It is of special meaning to most Jews because the zealots who lived there all chose suicide (1000 of them) rather than capture by the Romans. To this day every Israeli soldier recites in his oath, "Masada shall not fall again!" From there we moved northward to Engeddy Ein Gedi, an oasis in the midst of the mountains. If I didn't know better I would have sworn it was the Garden of Eden. You have to work to get there and really know where you're going (our guide was excellent!) because you'd never know it was there otherwise. It was well shaded by the mountains; there were little pools, bubbling brooks, waterfalls (some of them were small enough that we could slide down them in our swimsuits), caves with hanging moss, tiny flowers and trees. The water was as clear as what you'd run in a tub and was safe even to drink. It was just like something from a fairytale! From there we went to Nahal Arugot, another oasis, and then to Qumaran, the city where the Dead Sea Scrolls were written and which sits in the midst of the 14 caves where the scrolls were found. All of these, by the way, were just yards from the Dead Sea, a few minutes drive from each other, and in previously occupied territory. Before 1967 all of it belonged to Jordan. There were Israeli Phantom Jets flying over the water constantly; you could in fact see Jordan on the other side of the Dead Sea. From Qumaran we drove through Jericho; it was the first "disappointment" of the trip since it is now nothing more than a run-down Arab refugee camp, but it was interesting nevertheless. We did get a chance to swim in the Dead Sea. The entire group was in hysterics!! Its the one body of water I can actually stay up in!! You can honestly sit on the water and float, read a newspaper or whatever. The water is so heavy that you can't drown and it is so full of minerals that it doesn't even feel wet. It was fun while it lasted but we all itched and burned (in a number of places) for a good 24 hours! From Jericho we went to Jerusalem, & ate dinner in an Arabic restaurant. They served a sort of salad with mint in it and something which look like cigar butts soaked in oil but turned out to be nice rolled in grape leaves! (CONTNUED!)