2nd day of Field Study - Nazareth, Sipporis, and Beth-Shean

This is Liz, me, Laurie and Chelsea, we are getting ready to start our day, standing outside of our hotel in Nazareth, ready to get on the bus. The city of Nazareth is in the background. The conical shaped church steeple to the right of the green hood is the Church of the Anunciation, to commemorate where Mary was visited by the angel to tell her she would have a child.

 We are at the ancient site of the city of Sipporis, very close to Nazareth, a village Jesus would have probably visited often as he was growing up and working as a carpenter. Just a picture of some fieldl flowers and a village in the background.

 At the site of Sipporis, there are amazing floor mosaics. This one, that they call the 'Mona Lisa' is in a Triclenium Dining room, where they would recline to eat. It was in a very wealthy home, and the mosaic was just huge.

 Sipporis, a Jewish city that they found a lot of Greek influence in, including a mosaic of the zodiac inside a Jewish synagogue.

 More floor mosaics in Sipporis, really amazing artwork.

 Here we are way up on the Nazareth ridge, which is a hill that sits above Nazareth, and looks down into the expansive Jezreel Valley.  Jesus would have certainly climbed up here when he was growing up to see the view. This is also the traditional site of where the people from Nazareth wanted to stone Jesus, and he walked right through the midst of them so they could not throw him off.  Christians in Nazareth however believe he jumped off the cliff instead, and they call this "The Precupice".

 We are now at Beth-Shean, a very large, historic and important city on the edge of the Jezreel Valley. It had a tremendous Egyptian influence, and was basic a pagan city. The green hill you see in the background is the 'tel' where the ancient canaanite city ruins are (we climbed up there), but later when the city was expanded by Romans they built it down below, because their style was long flat streets. This was a very wealthy city with a large population.

 Many columns have fallen down at Beth-Shean by an earthquake that occurred a long time ago.

 So here we are sitting on one of those columns - that's me in the blue t-shirt, enjoying all the young ladies around me.

 This is our 'THINKER' pose....what do YOU think?

 Well, I am sorry to subject you to this, but this was a Roman style bathroom and it could accomodate a couple dozen people at the same times...no stall doors, either. What you did was straddle 2 marble slabs. I love Chelsea's look, the girl to the right of me:)

 Some Roman columns in the theather of the city.

Just had to show you this...we arrived at our hotel at the end of the day, at En Gev, which is on te east side of the Sea of Galilee.  I went straight to my room, straight out to the balcony, which had this tremendous view, and snapped this picture of the sunset over the Sea of Galilee.  What a wonderful ending to a superb day!!

First day of a four day field study! Caesarea, Mount Carmel, Jezreel Valley

Hermana, Rachel and Aubrey posing on some ruins at Caesarea.  This is a port city built by Herod the Great. He made a port for ships where there was none before. This opulent thriving city is where Paul stayed imprisoned for 3 years, and also from where he sailed for his missionary journeys.

Just a cute Lion column I saw...he looks kinda sad.

You can see some mosaics on the floor of what was once Herod's palace, and the water you see was his swimming pool!!  He had a fresh water swimming pool right on the edge of the salt water sea!

The Mediterranean sea at Caesarea.  Steven is posing...

Crashing waves along the seashore. The rocks are called kurkar, which is solidifed sand, was used from ancient time for building materials.

Herod had a 'hippodrome' which was used for chariot races...this is where they ran! Can you hear the hoofs pounding??

I saw little girl on the sand as we were walking along the seashore...too cute!!
We walked for about a mile trying to find the aquaducts (water carrying system that Herod designed)

Rissy and Chelsea are standing in the low level aquaduct that carried water for irrigation.

Here's the high level aquaduct that carried water for miles from some springs to be used for drinking water at Caesarea. Carla and Liz are running along the top of it.

At the entrace to the Mt. Carmel site, where Elijah had the showdown with the prophets of Baal, to see whose God would send down fire from heaven.

Here's Elijah...

View from Mt. Carmel, looking into the wide expansive Jezreel Valley. Many many Biblical stories took place here along the edges of this valley.

Some more scenery from Mt. Carmel.

Just a pic I took from the bus...believe it or not it's a Roman (time of Jesus) tomb with a rolling stone in front of it!

This is the ancient ruins of Megiddo, a city on the edge of the Jezreel Valley, ask me later about the Valley of Armageddon, many think it's in front of this site, but there is reason to think that the place of Armageddon will be Jerusalem itself.

Looking across the Jezreel Valley, Mount Tabor on the left, and Mount Moreh on the right. Beautiful scenery, a clear and wonderful day.

David's Tower Museum &Zedekiah's caves - just another walk in the Old City:)

 I'm standing on a tower, inside David's Tower museum (an awesome museum about the history of Jerusalem), which is right inside the Jaffa Gate, the main entrance into the Old City. Looking down at the Jaffa Gate area, I see a large group of Orthodox priests parading through the streets, chanting as they go.

 Inside David's Tower Museum, which by the way, has nothing to do with David, it's just what they named it. It is an ancient citadel, built for defense, to protect the city's gate.

 Just a great shot of the Israeli flag through this ancient arch at the museum.

 It's ironic that after seeing those priests march through the city, we were walking down a street in the Christian Quarter (the Old City has 4 quarters: Christian, Jewish, Armenian, and Moslem), we see this on a doorway...I think it's a good idea!

 Right outside the Damascas gate is the entrance to 'Zedekiah's Caves' (which probably has nothing to do with Zedekiah:) It is a natural cave, but mostly a huge underground quarry that was likely used from the time of Herod the Great's building projects...he probably extracted large stones from here for the rebuilding of the 2nd temple!  You can see cuts of huge stones everywhere down here.

 I am standing right next to where a big stone was removed from.

 Here's a tour guide, doing a television spot (we just happened to watch then recording their television show), talking about how they would cut the stone, insert wet wood, which would expand and pop the cut stone away from the limestone rock.

The three girls I went there with - Chelsea, Liz and Eva...this is the largest room of the quarry, and one that the Freemasons held meetings in during the late 1800's.

Let's celebrate Purim!!

 Purim is the holiday the Jews celebrate the story of Esther, queen of the Persian kingdom, and their deliverance from Haman's evil plot to destroy all the Jews.  This is the children's favorite holiday! (I think the adults love it too:)  Everyone dresses in costume, so here I am with Hannah, dressed as an Egyptian princess, at a Messianic Synagogue...I put on a viking hat just to get in the mood to celebrate!

Now, watch this video...he is reading the book of Esther in Hebrew, so I know you can't understand him, but listen, everytime he says "Haman", every one makes noise, boos, etc...(that's the best part)

 Here's the same dude with his mask on, dressed like a Japanese Moses, he kept pointing his stick at people!

 A little princess, she was so happy to be in her pink costume:)

Here's her sister, super princess!!

 "take my picture again with my mask on!"

 Jewish music, dancing, kids twirling, fun!  (watch the video at the end:)

Walking home from the synagogue, along the outside of the Old City Walls, a full moon, just beautiful!

Went down to the Western Wall, stood on a chair on the 'womens' side' to take this pic of these men reading Esther.

Join in the fun, they're singing Hava Negila!!

3rd day of Field Study - Masada and the Dead Sea! pics and videos

Are you ready for another adventure? First of all, understand it sometimes takes me several days to upload and post pics, because of the very slow internet. Tonight it is finally working, and I'm going to show you pics from my trip last weekend...enjoy!!

 So here is another big hill I am about to climb...Masada, a fortress in the desert built by Herod the Great, next to the Dead Sea. The 3 tiers you see on the left end were 3 floors of Herod's palace. Here hundreds of zealot Jews withstood the Romans, back in 73 AD, until the Romans built a ramp up and breached their walls, only to find they had all killed each other to avoid being taken captive. It doesn't matter that there is a cable car available to take up, we of course have to hike it up there!!

 Starting the climb....the good news is its a beautiful day, no rain, lots of sun, and not cold and windy!!

 Looking across some of the ruins (these were store rooms for all their food), and you can see the Dead sea beyond.

 This is the lower floor of Herod's 3 tiered palace.

 Looking from the top, down to the desert floor, the square you see is the remains of a Roman camp when they were laying seige to Masada.

OK, you caught me, I found a McDonalds, which is only good for one thing...an ice cream cone as a reward for all my hard work climbing that mountain!!  And another reward....we don't have to hike down, he let us take the cable car, and you can watch this video and come with me:)

We stopped for lunch at a park next to the Dead sea..check out this beach - its made of salt rocks that really hurt your feet.  Did you know the Dead sea is 38% salt and minerals??

Here, watch this video of the students in the water...I didn't get in,cuz I offered to hold cameras and take pics of the kids in the water...I literally had 8 cameras hanging on my arm.  I'm waiting for when Michael comes in with me.  I did go in it last time I was in Israel, but it was a much calmer day, and a much nicer beach with sand....ok, so I'm spoiled already.

 So check this out...we were on our way back home, stopped at an abandoned restaurant for one last view of the Dead Sea.  And out this hole in the wall we see our bus, trying to turn around to come back and pick us up, and it was totally stuck down an embankment!!

 Before the bus got stuck, we stopped at EnGedi..where David hid from Saul, and then cut off the corner of Saul's robe unbeknownst to him, etc.  This is an oasis in the desert because of natural springs.

 Caves up on the hillside...hmmm, do you think this is the one David was in?

 Nearby is Qumran, and this is the cave where the the shepherd boy threw in a rock, heard something shatter, and discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Pic I took at the abandoned restaurant while the bus was stuck...and don't worry, there just happened to be a bulldozer driving by, which hooked up a chain and hauled the bus right back up to the road, and we were on our way  (Thank you Jesus for bulldozers in Israel:)