Sunrise at Masada

This morning I woke up at 4:15am to watch the sunrise over the Dead Sea and Judean Desert from Masada, an ancient fortification that sits atop a giant rock plateau. It's not just an active and #beautiful experience, but a historical one, as you'll see ruins from the luxurious fortress erected by Herod the Great in 30 BCE. According to my guide, when Roman troops invaded Masada at the end of the First Jewish-Roman War, almost 1,000 Sicarii rebels and Jewish freedom fighters -- those who had been killed trying to get rid of the Romans from Judea -- killed themselves, as they would rather commit suicide and be with God than for at the hands of their enemy.