A more leisurely morning at the hotel by the Dead Sea, enjoying the sun and the strange sensation in the water. (not that strange just like swimming in a 5mm wetsuit)

To Massada, some 440m above the Dead Sea. First fortified 1-2c BC, and then reinforced under Roman Ruler Herod the Great who added two luxurious palaces.

The Fortress was captured from the Romans by the Jewish Zealot Sect in AD66, and after the Romans had crushed the Jewish Rebels in Jerusalem, Massada was the last Jewish stronghold which only fell after a 2 year siege in AD73

Then, across the West Bank Palestinian Territories to the Mount of Olives for our first view of the old city.