10.may.2006 _ masada (1)

our portughese word "massada" must've come from this amazing lost city.
in portughese it means "something hard to do, almost in a boring way" and to arrive in Masada is a long and long journey... thanksfully they have technology nowadays... but when it was made, everything was by foot, obviously.

the history of this place is very intricate, if you must know about it please ask someone else, or try to find a book, or even see the movie that was made about it. this not because i don't know anything, but because it would take me forever... and i might get stuff wrong.

the idea you have to get is that this city was where Herod built one of his most spectacular palaces to domain the whole of the Dead Sea, but this place was also inhabited by arabs, muslims, "hippies"... all of these populations just before the Romans atacked (you can see rests of the romans camps below in a diamond shape) after years of camping and studying how to get up there, all the people who were living there, decided to take action, not by war but by killing themselves.


in their religion suicide is a sin... so with the consent of the highest priests 10 men were chosen to kill all the others, then 5 were chosen, then 2, then these killed eachtoher... all that the Romans found was a destroied city and a few children and women.

for anyone interested in architecture this is breathtaking... but i bet anyone else feels the same way.
it is a dead city just like the sea... any visitor can prove that there is life in these walls, columns, pavements, views, "tecnological" sewage, water circulations, in everything.

because i have no idea why blogger doesn't allow me to post any more pictures... it'll be ocntinued...