Into the Wild Blue Yonder
Posting this in honor of ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia International Awareness Day and in support of my friend Maria and others who suffer from these illnesses.
While touring Israel we were able to visit Masada and the weather while we were there was absolutely beautiful with perhaps the brightest blue skies I've ever seen complete with iridescent clouds and halos.
I will add some shots of the site of the fort itself in the future, but until I do so thought I'd share a little bit of the story about what happened there. Masada is an ancient fort in southern Israel and dates back to 100 BC. Herod the Great built two palaces on the site in the event that he needed to escape from a revolt. Then in 70 AD, after the Romans had destroyed the temple and most of Jerusalem, a group of Judean rebels fled to Masada. A legion of 8,000 Romans pursued this last group of 960 people Jews (including many women and children). They tried a variety of tactics to overtake the rebels. Finally they built a huge earth ramp and pushed siege tower up it. When they entered the fortress they found that the town had been burned to the ground (except for the food, they wanted them to know that they had enough provisions to survive) and everyone was dead. They preferred death at their own hands to slavery or execution. Jewish historian recorded this having been given a full account of the siege by two women who survived by hiding with their five children. A mini-series and movie were both made about the siege at Masada and until recently members of the Israeli army were sworn in at Masada so that they would feel a connection to this type of heroism.
Into the Wild Blue Yonder
Posting this in honor of ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia International Awareness Day and in support of my friend Maria and others who suffer from these illnesses.
While touring Israel we were able to visit Masada and the weather while we were there was absolutely beautiful with perhaps the brightest blue skies I've ever seen complete with iridescent clouds and halos.
I will add some shots of the site of the fort itself in the future, but until I do so thought I'd share a little bit of the story about what happened there. Masada is an ancient fort in southern Israel and dates back to 100 BC. Herod the Great built two palaces on the site in the event that he needed to escape from a revolt. Then in 70 AD, after the Romans had destroyed the temple and most of Jerusalem, a group of Judean rebels fled to Masada. A legion of 8,000 Romans pursued this last group of 960 people Jews (including many women and children). They tried a variety of tactics to overtake the rebels. Finally they built a huge earth ramp and pushed siege tower up it. When they entered the fortress they found that the town had been burned to the ground (except for the food, they wanted them to know that they had enough provisions to survive) and everyone was dead. They preferred death at their own hands to slavery or execution. Jewish historian recorded this having been given a full account of the siege by two women who survived by hiding with their five children. A mini-series and movie were both made about the siege at Masada and until recently members of the Israeli army were sworn in at Masada so that they would feel a connection to this type of heroism.