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!

Shabbat

In Israel Shabbat (the Sabbath) starts Friday evening at sundown and lasts until Saturday evening after 3 stars appear. We went to church on Saturday in the Galilee Branch in Tiberius. It was in a house that had both church and an apartment.

The front of the Chapel was all glass and you could look out onto the Sea of Galilee.

After church we drove just about to the northern border of Israel and through the Golan. We saw an old bunker from pre 1967 when Syria controlled the Golan. We then drove to Banias which is one of the sources of the Jordan river. It is an abandoned village and now a nature preserve at the base of Mount Hermon. During the Greek period the city which is named after the Greek god, Pan was at this place. During the Roman period Herod's son Philipus erected Kesari Dephilipi which is mentioned in the New Testament. There is a big cave where the water used to come from, but an earthquake changed that and water gushes from many different areas. In the Bible it tells about a slit in the rock where people threw in animals and a persons fate rested on whether or not blood came out at the bottom in the water. This slit was called the Gates of Hell. At one time there was a chapel across the entrance to the cave.

From Banias we returned to the Sea of Galilee and rode in a boat across the lake. It grew dark while we were on the lake. Luckily it stopped raining while we were on the lake.

They hoisted the Canadian flag and we sang O Canada. Since there were a couple of Americans they also hoisted the US flag and sang the American anthem and then the Jewish national athem.

We finished off the evening with a supper of St. Peter's fish, but I opted for pasta. We went back to Ein Gev in the rain.

Sipporri, Galilee Boat, Mount of Beatitudes & Capernum

Siporri (or Zippori or Sepphoris) was the largest city of Galilee during the Christian era. Traditionally it was the home of Mary's parents, Anne and Joachim. It is famous for the number of mosaics that have been excavated.

A mosaic known as the "Mona Lisa of the Galilee":

More mosaic floors:



They are still excavating at Sippori.

The remains of a two thousand year boat was dug from the mud of the Sea of Galilee. It is now in a museum.

There is now a church at the top of the Mount of Beatitudes where Jesus gave the sermon on the mount, but there is still a very nice view from there.

In Roman times, Capernaum was a wealthy Jewish town. There was a very elaborate synagogue there and Jesus preached in it. He met his first disciples in Capernaum and performed many miracles there.

Remains of the synagogue:

It was a long, wet day. I went back to the guesthouse soaked to the skin and was so cold and tired I went straight to bed and didn't bother with supper. The pictures don't show the rain, but it did rain.

Ein Gev Kibbutz, Mt. Tabor & Mt. of Transfiguration

There are many birds in Israel. You can hear cooing of pigeons and loud chirping of other birds all over. On the porch of our guesthouse at the Ein Gev Kibbutz there was a bird nest. Here is a picture of the bird sitting on the nest.

We could view the Sea of Galilee from the guesthouse.

Friday, the 26th February we set out from the guesthouse to visit Mount Tabor. It was at Mt. Tabor that Jesus was transfigured in the eyes of Peter, James and John. Now there is a church called the Basilica of the Transfiguration built at the top of the hill. We stood in line for a long time to get a taxi because the buses can't go up the winding road.

This is also the place where at the behest of Deborah, Barak went down from Mount Tabor and ten thousand men after him to fight Jabin, King of Hazor. This was one of the first large battles fought by the Israelites during their conquest of the land from the Canaanites.

There is a great view of the Jezreel plain, Nazareth, Samaria and the Galilee.

Friday was another rainy day. There was more rain in Israel than there usually is. Some of the roads flooded and we saw places that they had washed out.

Israel is much smaller that I expected. You can drive from North to South in about five hours.

Tel Megiddo

I thought I had finished with all the sites we visited on Thursday, February 25th, but I missed Tel Megiddo. A tel is a hill that has been built up because people have built on the ruins of previous settlements. There are 25 layers of ruins at Tel Megiddo. Most of the excavations here have been done down to bible times, although some parts have been excavated to lower levels.

From Tel Megiddo you can see the Armagedon valley.

King Ahab had a fortress here and in order to have access to water he had a tunnel built to a spring that was outside the fortress. He sealed off access to the spring from the outside so the only way to get to it was through the tunnel from inside the fort. Here is the spring at the bottom of the tunnel - the water had to be carried up 183 steps after crossing the tunnel.

Mount Carmel and on to Ein Gev

We left Caesarea and traveled on to Mount Carmel. This is the place where Elijah and the Priests of Baal had the contest to see which God would accept the sacrifice. Here is the view from Mount Carmel.



By the time we got to Nazareth it was very windy, cold and rainy so no pictures. Nazareth is no longer a small village, but is a very big city. We went up to the hill where Jesus went after he was at the Temple.

Along the way we passed the tomb below. It shows what the stone was like that was at Jesus tomb. This tomb was discovered by road construction crews. There are very few of the stones like this that still exist.

We arrived at the guest house run by the Ein Gev Kibbutz. It is down the road from the Kibbutz. The accomodations were somewhat spartan - no bathtub, just a shower. We had been out in so much rain that I was soaked clear through to the skin by the time we got there.