Sea of Galilee to the Golan

On Sunday, Feb. 28 we packed up and left Ein Gev guesthouse for the last time. We traveled to the south end of the Golan and visited Belle Voir, a fortress from the Crusader period. It was still cold and raining so I stayed in the bus.

Our next stop was Gideon's cave. The pool in front of the cave is where Joshua had his soldiers drink so he could choose which ones would fight. It seemed rather small for such a big army.

Bet Alfa has the ruins of an ancient synagogue that was discovered when farmers were digging to make an irrigation system.

The synagogue had a fancy mosaic floor which had Jewish symbols top and bottom but the middle part was the zodiac signs.

We then drove to Bet Shean. Bet Shean is the ruins of a great city of ancient times which was at an important junction for roads to Syria, Jordan, Egypt and the Mediterrean. Excavations show 18 levels of occupation. In 749 AD an earthquake hit the city and it was never rebuilt.

Main Street

The Theatre

Guess what this was.

The public toilets

The hippodrome

One more stop on a busy day. This was at Qumran near where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. We saw a genuine Dead Sea Scroll. I was surprised they way they were written. I would have thought they wrote lengthways, but they made pages along the width.

There were ruins near the caves. It is thought that a monastic group of Essenes lived in this community. Ritual bath and cleansing was an essential part of their lives, so there were many ritual baths and a large water cistern.

one of the caves

Qumran was my favorite place. Guess what I found there!