June 26

Yesterday and today were relatively easy days. That ends tomorrow. We meet the bus at 7 AM and head for Caesarea and then up to Mount Carmel and Megiddo. We spend the next four days and three nights in the Galilee area. We are staying in a Kibbutz on the Galilee Sea.

Obviously this area of Israel will be of great interest as it is where Jesus spent most of his life. We will visit Nazareth, Capernaum and surrounding areas. Should be quite exciting.

Let me give you an idea of a typical day when we are on these all day trips.

We board a bus at 7 AM. It is a nice tour bus - comfortable and air conditioned. We then ride to our first site - generally an archeological dig of an ancient city or area. Most of these cities are located on high hills or mounds. We hike up the hill and listen to a series of lectures at several locations lasting between 30 and 45 minutes. We walk around the site and take pictures and then return to the bus and head for the next site.

We will repeat this pattern five or six times during the day. Lunch is prepared and served about noon. It consists of a pita stuffed with either tuna salad or turkey and cheese slices. We have fresh carrots, olives, pickles and an assortment of peanut butter and jellies for dessert. All of this is packed in coolers brought with us.

We usually end the day about 6 PM, have dinner and explore around the place we are staying.

Water is essential. In a typical day I will drink about five liters of water. That's ten of the water bottles we buy at the grocery store. At least one person has gotten dehydrated by not consuming enough water.

I am guessing that in a typical day we will walk five to six miles. And in Israel every step is either uphill or downhill and in the field it is generally on rocks. Carefulness in stepping is essential for this old guy. (By the way, thanks Judy for the "Old geezer at Gezer" comment!)

Speaking of rocks - I have never seen so many rocks or so many stone structures.To use a big word they are ubiquitous.

Internet service will not be available where we are going. Thus, I will not post any blogs or pictures until next week.

I appreciate the words of encouragement from those who read the blog and look forward to sharing more in the days ahead.

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

Until later.

June 24

On the last day of our southern tour of Israel, we first went to Masada. This place was amazing. Herod found this large, relatively flat mountain and decided to build a palace and fortress there. He apparently had unlimited funds, great architects and engineers and a paranoia about being taken over by Cleopatra or Rome.

In addition to the many opulent rooms, bathhouses, palace thrones, etc., he also had cisterns constructed that held 11,000,000 gallons of water.

The Israeli Zealots captured the city about 70 AD after Rome destroyed Jerusalem and used it as base for creating problems for Rome. The Romans headed to Masada in about 73 AD and laid siege to the city for about two years. The Zealots had plenty of water and food so they held on until the Romans army built a siege wall.

The night before the Romans were to break through, about 960 Zealots (men, women and children) committed murder/suicide to deny Rome the privilege of killing them.

The walk to the top along the siege ramp path was about 1/2 to 3/4 mile with an elevation increase of about 1,200 feet. It was good that we did this before 9 am. Below is a picture of the path up to Masada from about 2/3 the way up. This was some hike!!

Here is me after arriving at the top (no EMTs were necessary).

This is a Synagogue found at Masada. It was originally a stable in Herod's time and converted into a Synagogue by the Zealots. It is known what type of worship facility it is by the orientation of the altar. Synagogues face toward Jerusalem, Mosques toward Mecca, and Churches to the East.

The area below the black line is original structure, the area above is recreated structure.

The North Palace had three levels, we hiked down (and then back up, of course) to the lower level.

The lower level of the North Palace.

This is a picture from above of an excavation of a Roman camp set up during the siege. These guys were tough - two years in the heat with all the work, plus the only water source was En Gedi, many miles to the north.

The Dead Sea, 36% minerals and salt. The Dead Sea is dying. It is about 85 - 100 feet below its level 50 years ago. Ecological troubles are everywhere.

We then visited En Gedi, the springs famous for David's encounter with Saul during his time of trying to stay away from him. The walk up the Wadi to the waterfalls was steep but worth the trip in beauty and amazement that this existed in this area of Israel.

Below are David's Falls

Our last stop on this trip was at Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. This is a picture of one of the caves. The scrolls were created by a group of men who were committed to copy and preserving the scriptures. Fragments from all of the books of the OT, except Esther, were found here.

June 23

Last night we stayed at a youth hostel in Mitzpe Ramon. This hostel was very nice. Clean, two to a room, private bath rooms.Here is picture from the outside.

Below is a reassembly of a typical four room house that was found in the desert by the military when clearing the land for military facilities. These houses were common all over Israel.

At least one of the rooms on the right or left were probably used for livestock. Think - Jesus born in a manger in a stable.

From here we went up to Avdat, a Nabatean city built in the 1st century BC to control the trade route from Arabia to the Mediterranean. By control, I mean tax. There were at least five other cities dotted across the region. Avdat was amazingly high. From the city you could see for miles around. No one could get through without being detected.

This is an early Christian church - 5th century at Avdat. There is some evidence of a monastery having been here. The pews were pretty hard!

Don and me at Avdat. This picture gives you some idea of the view from this city.

We then visited the Wadi Zen near Avedat and saw numerous ibexes and on long horned ram. Here is a picture of the water that drains through this wadi.

We left here and went to Beersheba, the ancient home of the patriarchs. There is a modern city of Beersheba 3 - 4 miles away. Abraham is specifically mentioned in the bible as coming here. But other cultures and people occupied this city as well. An ancient cultic altar was found here.

Here is a panoramic view of Beersheba from atop a platform.

We stayed that night in another youth hostel in the modern city of Arad. Below is a picture of the courtyard. Very nice place.