"The Northern Palace - Lower Balcony"

Masada National Park - Judean Desert - Israel - November 2006
Kodak Gold 200

Masada "golden era" was at the time Hordus was the governor of Judea. Hordus saw the strategic potential of Masada natural geographic isolation, and built a palace heavily fortified and well supplied for times of crisis and for indulgence in winter times. The creme De la creme of Masada is the northern palace, three terraced levels carved into the side of the mountain, each servs as a "suite" on it's own and literally hanging on the brink over 300 meters of void. Needless to say, the panorama is absolutely amazing, the Dead sea shines from not far away to the west...

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"Watch Tower"

Masada National Park - Judean Desert - Israel - November 2006

Kodak Gold 200

On the Mountain.

The most prominent element on Masada is this watch tower, which controlled both the eastern and western entrances to the compound. This tower also controlled the northern section that held the warehouses of Masada and the Northern Palace, which was used by highly respected VIPs and Hordus himself.

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"Under the Monster"

Masada National Park - Judean Desert - Israel - November 2006

Kodak Gold 200

With time came the technology and advance, and around the 70's of the last century the Cable car was part of this impressive monument of nature. Within 2 minutes of electrical current and the turning of the wheel, you can bridge the gap of 350 meters with ease...In some way, this monster is already part of the Masada...

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"Bridging the Gap"

Masada National Park - Judean Desert - Israel - November 2006

@ ISO 200, f/6.3

Still climbing.

The "Snake path" is a 2 km long path that starts at the National Park's entrance and ends at the top of the plateau , some 350 meters above - luckily, 700 steps aid to bridge this gap...

;)

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"Enjoying the Silence"

Masada National Park - Judean Desert - Israel - November 2006

@ ISO 400, f/4

Waiting for the sunrise, and enjoying Nature...

Away from the bustling towns and industrial life, so close to nature you get that at the end, you are connected to this land, to the air, to everything - the sun is part of you, and you are part of the sun. One matter, one entity...

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"Dividing"

Masada National Park - Judean Desert - Israel - November 2006

@ ISO 800, f/4

Starting the climb.

It was around 5:30 am, the first rays of light already passed the mountains on the eastern side of the Dead sea, and it was cool. The "Snake path" took with loops toward the top of the rising plateau, the cables of the cable car were stretched over our heads, observing our progress, as well as the almost full moon high above. ..

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"First Light"

Masada National Park - Judean Desert - Israel - November 2006

@ ISO 400, f/4

First light over the desert and Masada mountain. That night we had a visitor: a fox. The little Canis looked for food and it could smell our dinner leftovers for km's away, so when darkness and stillness ruled, it moved and started to dig underneath a big rock me and Oz hid the trash bag - we expected that company would arrive and inspect the area, we just didn't believe it would happen so soon. The fox, I must say, was suffering from hunger more than from fear. It dug underneath the stone while I shone with my headlight on my forehead and camera in the other hand. Unfortunately, the camera refused to focus no matter what, so eventually I went to sleep with blurred pictures which I purged later on.

That night the moon shone and around 4 am we had quite a lot of light so we could easily distinguish the outlines of Masada Mountain, the mountain we would climb in less than two hours time. While Oz arranged his stuff, I took the time to keep a memory of that impressive sight.

The camp tent and vehicle was of others travelers that still slept even when we were half way up on the mountain...

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