Route 90 Road trip - טיול בכביש 90 - Dead Sea & En Gedi

Yonatan, Riva and I spent four days in high summer last year on a trip south which, though concentrating on the Arava from the Dead sea south to Eilat and north through the Negev to end before Be'er Sheva, started with a drive south from lake Kinneret along the route 90, the northern section of which - Derekh Gandi (Gandhi's Road) - has been the subject of previous posts, beginning with this one. However to prove it, I start with a "Sea Level" picture above the Kinneret!

Sea Level above the Kinneret between Kfar Avoda and Kinneret

But getting back to business, this post begins where the series of posts on the northern section of route 90 began, at the Dead Sea end of route 1. Our first stop was a brief pit stop at Lido Junction at the northern end of the Dead Sea. The subject of a future post, I hope, this junction is named for the nearby lido which used to attract Jews, Arabs and British in pre-state times - and some interesting old sites remain from that time to be explored. However on this occasion we only had a chance to investigate the mandate-era milestone. Or at least I presume it is, for it is inscribed "Khirbet Qumran Scroll Caves," and since these were first discovered in 1947, the milestone would have been a late mandate project. The other possibility is that the Jordanians erected it between 1948 and 1967. Either way, it omits any Hebrew.

Post-1947 milestone at Lido Junction, northern end of the Dead Sea.

The northernmost part of the southern section of route 90, beginning here, is known as the Dead Sea Highway, and it is the lowest road in the world. The road hugs the western shore of the Dead Sea (Hebrew: ים המלח‎; Arabic: البحر الميت), affording spectacular views across it into Jordan and the mountains of Moab, as well as west into the Judaean Mountains.

The Dead Sea, looking north, just north of En Gedi

We stopped at En Gedi (Hebrew: עין גדִי; Arabic عين جدي - ayn jadi - both meaning "the spring of the young goat"). En Gedi is at heart an oasis around which there has been settlement for millennia - today there is a kibbutz of that name, and the whole area is a national park.

In the Chalcolithic period (4th millennium BCE), a temple was erected at the En Gedi oasis which served as a cultic center for the nomadic tribes of the region. The temple compound was built on a rock terrace above the spring, but later abandoned permanently. During the biblical period, En Gedi and the surrounding desert, known as the Wilderness of En Gedi, were part of the territory of the Tribe of Judah. David sought refuge from King Saul at Ein Gedi (1 Samuel 24:1), and the first permanent settlement was built on the low hill to the south, Tel Goren, at the end of the monarchic period (second half of the 7th century BCE). This Jewish settlement existed at En Gedi for more than 1,200 years. The houses of the small village at Tel Goren were built close together on terraces; each comprising two rooms and a courtyard. Large clay vats for the storage of drinking water were found here, some with Royal seal impressions, others bearing personal names, as well as a hoard of silver pieces, indicating wealth and economic importance.

During the Persian period (5th-4th centuries BCE) the village grew in area, and a prominent, large structure (550 sq.m.), probably two stories high, was found containing storerooms in which numerous artifacts were found. In the Hasmonean and Herodian periods (first century BCE to first century CE) the Jewish settlement at En Gedi thrived, expanded and became a royal estate. At Tel Goren, a well-fortified citadel was built to protect the village and its agricultural products against raiding nomads. At this time En Gedi expanded and spread to the low, flat hill at the foot of Tel Goren. En Gedi was destroyed and abandoned during the First Jewish Rebellion against Rome (66-70 CE).

During the Bar Kochba Revolt (132-135 CE), En Gedi was an important outpost of the rebels, as recorded in the Bar Kochba letters found in the Dead Sea area. Later, a Roman garrison was stationed at En Gedi. During the Roman and Byzantine periods (2nd-6th century), the oasis was an imperial estate and the settlement at En-Gedi reached the peak of its prosperity. In the third century, the community built a synagogue whose beautiful mosaic floor, with Hebrew and Aramaic inscriptions, is a highlight of the visit to En Gedi.

Mosaic floor, the ancient synagogue at En Gedi

The mosaic floor was discovered accidentally in 1965, 300 metres north of Tel Goren, and excavated betweebn 1970 and 1972, with additional excavations in the 1990s and 2000s. The floor seen today is the second floor. Beneath it is a simpler black and white mosaic, which can be seen in places, dating to the 3rd century, when the synagogue contained a portable aron hakodesh (ark). The synagogue was renovated at the start of the 4th century and the floor repaired, and the central entrance in the north wall was closed and converted into a niche for the Torah scrolls, with columns added to make a central hall with two aisles. In the mid fifth century the floor we see today was added, with its dedicatory inscriptions, along with a south aisle, and an entrance hall to the west. The aron hakodesh was placed in front of the northern wall and a bemah (platform) built in front of it, and a second storey balcony was added.

The En Gedi community based around the site of the synagogue, which is to the south of En Gedi itself, was famous for its dates and for balsam, a plant from which a costly perfume was produced, and the remains of components of ancient irrigation systems show how the inhabitants used the fresh water to irrigate their cultivated terraces. The community existed from the 3rd to 6th centuries CE, but evidence of a second Temple period Jewish settlement has been found below these levels, extending south to Tel Goren. Several streets surrounding the synagogue have been uncovered, revealing mikva'ot, study halls, and an inn or dwellings. Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea Maritima, the historian and exegete, wrote of a "very large village of Jews" at En Gedi in the 4th century. By the 6th century the community and its synagogue had been destroyed by fire, thought to be the result of a wave of persecution early in the reign of Justinian I, around 350 CE, as evidenced (among other things) by a hoard of linen-wrapped coins dated to his reign found in the courtyard of an adjacent building. Scroll fragments from the book of Leviticus were also unearthed.

The remains of the En Gedi community are at the foot of Wadi David and Wadi Agurot, below the high plateau of the Judaean Desert, as can be seen from the following map and pictures.

Left: Looking up towards the Judaean desert plateau above Wadi Agurot, behind the ancient synagogue at Ein Gedi; Right: Relief map of the area

Tel Goren, south of the En Gev community, in Wadi Agurot

Among the plants growing in the wadi was the Sodom Apple tree, Calotropis procera (Hebrew: תפוח סדום). Its alternative Hebrew name, פתילת המדבר, means literally "wick of the desert," on account of the use of the fibres attached to its seed for wicks in ancient times.