Because I am rebuilding this post after losing it yesterday, I am going to keep it rather short. There is a lot to tell but I also want to write about today's journey.
We left our hotel at Netanya and traveled a few miles north to the city of Caesarea. This city was built by King Herod the Great in 19 bc and was built with the help of his Roman benefactors. The city featured a deep-water port with a breakwater, Roman theatre seating 3000, a hippodrome (site of chariot races) to seat 15,000, Roman baths and a Roman temple.
From a Christian standpoint Caesarea is important because Peter and Paul were both imprisioned there for several years before being shipped off to Rome. It was also the seat of rule for Pontius Pilate, who was the Roman governor after the reign of Herod.
From Caesarea we visited the remains of a Roman aqueduct that brought fresh water from the mountains in the north, traveling over 70 km over a variety of terrain. The engineering was amazing for its day.
Our next stop was Mt. Carmel, which is mentioned a number of times in the bible. It was here that the prophet Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal (idol worshipers) to exhort their god to start a sacrifice on fire. Elijah won, even after soaking his wood in water. Mt. Carmel is also the site of several New Testament stories.
Mt. Carmel overlooks the Jezreel valley, a very fertile farming region in Israel. Through this valley runs crossroads to all of the middle east and it has been the site of many battles through the millenia. The city of Megiddo is mentioned in a temple in Luxor, Egypt because it was conquered by the Pharoah in 1500 b.c., the earliest recorded battle in history.
At Megiddo we toured a "Tel" which is an archeological dig covering multiple civilizations. At Megiddo, the Tel has unearthed 17 different civilizations built one on top of another. The final civilization died out when the water in an underground spring dried up. The spring could be accessed from inside the city gates through a tunnel. Some of the heartier members of the group walked down 100 steps into the tunnel and then proceed to walk through the tunnel to the source of spring and back up another 60 steps.
Because Megiddo has been the site of many battles (all the important armies have been through there, including Alexander the Great, Caesar, Constantine, the moslem armies and the crusaders, just to name a few) it is also the purported site of Armagedon, which is mentioned in Revelations at the place where the final battle to end the world takes place.
Our last stop of the day was Nazareth, home of Joseph and Mary and Jesus. We toured a replica of a first century a.d. village would have looked like. There were olive trees, a vineyard, and terraced farm fields, since Nazareth is built on a hillside and is very rocky. This replica village is near the center of town and had never been built on, so the farm existed much as it must have looked like 2000 years ago.
Wow. Looking back, what a full day. We continued about 20 miles over the hills to Tiberius on the Sea of Galilee, where we will stay for 3 nights.
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