Masada

With the exception of my hike up Huangshan in China, I can't ever remember feeling so physically and emotionally winded as I felt hiking up Masada. Both hikes involved never-ending stairs. To me, a hike should involve varied terrain. It should not, however, be a stair master nightmare turned into reality with stairs stacking up into the heavens, no end in sight.

If you are anything like me, I beg you: hike Masada anyway.

We started our hike in the early morning so as to reach the summit around sunrise. This did make our journey cooler, but only just. I took one stair at a time, leaning more and more upon the sporadically available handrails as I ascended. Sweaty and breathless, I stopped for a moment, looked around, and saw this:

I had to quicken my pace to get to the top for sunrise, but I made it just in time.

As the sun broke free of the horizon it spread first across the dead sea, then across the ancient holy ruins atop the mountain.