Up and out early because this was a big day for us! By the end of the day we would be in Jerusalem for the last stage of our journey. We couldn't open our window, but this was the view of the Sea of Galilee from our room first thing in the morning.
Our first stop was Beit She'an. At one time this area was under Egyptian control, later it was mentioned in Scripture as a Canaanite city. It was captured and built up by David. But it would become most significant while under control of the Romans. This was the capital of the Decapolis, the ten cities of Samaria that were centers of Greco-Roman culture. It's a huge archaeological dig now with many significant finds.
We hiked all the way to the back of the site and up the mountain to check out the views as well as the Egyptian ruins there.
Along the colonnade.
Here is the large Roman ampitheater; the stage has been partially restored.
And next door to the ampitheater was the lovely unisex Roman bathroom! Everyone had fun "trying" it out.
Afterwards we traveled to Megiddo, better known as Armageddon. This place has been conquered so many times it's no wonder John envisioning the last great battle taking place here - there are 26 layers of ancient civilizations on this site. We had lunch before taking our big tour, which started out by looking at this huge interactive model.
Below the line is original and above the line is restoration.
In the stables, we found several stone mangers like this one.
A huge grain silo.
The highlight of the tour was walking down and out of the city through this long underground tunnel through which they accessed water. It's 70meters or 229feet.
As we were driving along to our next stop we saw a few interesting things: 1) this shepherd herding his goats and 2) some old tombs alongside the road.
This would have been the ampitheater where Paul would have given his testimony. It's been restored and is now used as a concert venue.
This is the ruins of one of Herod's palaces. While he was a paranoid madman, he was brilliant in designing architecture. This particular palace jutted out into the sea and had a freshwater pool in the middle of it, the remnants of which you can see in the middle of this picture.
Our friend BJ was done by the palace remnants scraping sand of the mosaic floor.
Several of the ladies wandered down to the beach - from left to right is me, Kathy, Patti and Liz. Kathy and I were the only ones brave enough to take our shoes off (it was freezing!) and dip our feet in the waters of the Mediterranean! I also picked up several beautiful sea shells off the shore.
Below the line is original and above the line is restoration.
In the stables, we found several stone mangers like this one.
A huge grain silo.
The highlight of the tour was walking down and out of the city through this long underground tunnel through which they accessed water. It's 70meters or 229feet.
Next we were off to Mt. Carmel. This is the site of where the prophet Elijah had his showdown with the prophets of Baal. We had our devotional here this day.
There's a Carmelite nunnery here but we weren't allowed in on their grounds because it was during their rest time.
And then we headed for the Sea - the Mediterranean Sea! Our last stop was Caesarea by the Sea, the seat of Roman government for this area during the time of Jesus and Paul. Paul was brought here to appear before Felix before being sent on to Rome. Here's some of the statues and architectural details found onsite (the last picture here is a sarcophagus).
An aqueduct ran above ground for five miles bringing drinking water into the city.
There's a Carmelite nunnery here but we weren't allowed in on their grounds because it was during their rest time.
And then we headed for the Sea - the Mediterranean Sea! Our last stop was Caesarea by the Sea, the seat of Roman government for this area during the time of Jesus and Paul. Paul was brought here to appear before Felix before being sent on to Rome. Here's some of the statues and architectural details found onsite (the last picture here is a sarcophagus).
This was a group of Israeli schoolchildren from Beer'sheba. Thousands of children had been evacuated from the areas which were being targeted by rockets from Gaza. These children had been brought up to northern Israel and were being hosted by families and taken on tours of historic sites during the day.
This would have been the ampitheater where Paul would have given his testimony. It's been restored and is now used as a concert venue.
Our friend BJ was done by the palace remnants scraping sand of the mosaic floor.
Views of the Mediterranean Sea.
Several of the ladies wandered down to the beach - from left to right is me, Kathy, Patti and Liz. Kathy and I were the only ones brave enough to take our shoes off (it was freezing!) and dip our feet in the waters of the Mediterranean! I also picked up several beautiful sea shells off the shore.
And then it was time for the bus ride to Jerusalem. Even though we would be heading south to Jerusalem, whenever you are traveling to Jerusalem, you always refer to it as "ascending to Jerusalem." We took one of the superhighway toll roads so the trip should have only taken between 1.5 and 2 hours. However there was a horrible accident where a car went off an overpass and we were quite stuck, going only five miles in 90 minutes. Avi called our hotel and they held dinner for us in a special dining room since we were so late. By the time we arrived at the Olive Tree Hotel in Jerusalem we were starving and exhausted. So Dr. Tuttle decided to forego the evening meeting and after dinner we all went directly to bed!
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