Masada

On our second morning at the Dead Sea, we got up early for a hike to watch the sun rise at the top of Masada, a fortress/palace built by King Herod on top of one of the plateaus by the Dead Sea.

We arrived at the base of the plateau around 5:00 in the morning, in the pitch black dark, and immediately realized that we forgot our headlamps and flashlights. Still, we took off up the plateau, determined to reach the top by sunrise.
I think I spent the majority of the hike turned backwards to look at the sky over the Dead Sea. The sky was absolutely beautiful! I was nervous that we would miss the sunrise, but it really took about an hour and a half for the sun to come up, and during that time the sky changed so many times into so many beautiful colors. It was amazing.
After a short but very steep hike, we finally made it to the top, just in time to watch the sunrise.
We then wandered around the plateau, throughout the ruins of barracks, an armory, a palace, cisterns, a synagogue, towers and walls. I really had trouble wrapping my head around the fact that these ruins were from a fortress built in 35 B.C. On the way back down, I was glad to be able to see the surrounding mountains and plateaus in the light. I found the entire landscape breathtaking.