Slopes of Sandy Stone (3)

Around the western, northern and southern sides of Masada in the Judaean desert there are these magnificent cliffs sweeping down to the desert floor. The sunrise I saw from atop the plateau was breathtaking, but these cliffs were probably the most magnificent landscape I've ever seen.

On the northern end of the plateau were the ruins of King Herod's palace and private bath (Masada was his winter retreat) and on the southern edge my group did a really cool activity; the cliffs in that spot have this great echoing quality and all 46 of us shouted (something akin to) "Israel forever" and heard the reverberations for at least 10 seconds afterwards. It was amazing.