Field Trip to Galilee
This is us on a boat in the Kinneret.
In October we went on a field trip to the Galilee. The Galilee is very different from the rest of Israel and it was nice to have a change of pace from the usual.
Day #1: Caesarea and etc.
The theatre. It's mostly reconstructed. They have concerts
there often. I think that's my head in the bottom left corner. Can you see it?
The remains of Herod's palace. In the background there is the hippodrome. At the end you can still see the gates where the chariots would come out of. It is at the palace during the time of Festus and Felix that Paul was imprisoned and finally sent to Rome.
A high level aqueduct that Herod built to bring fresh
spring water to his bathtub. The Mediterranean in the background.
The ancient altar at Megiddo. This thing is huge. It dates to before Abraham, probably.
Day #2: Qasrin and Nimrod:
The Talmudic, i.e. Byzantine, synagogue at Qasrin in the
Golan. This town was excavated and reconstructed. It pretty much looks like the
kind of place Jesus would have grown up in.
A volcanic lake up in the foothills of Mt. Hermon in the Golan. It's like 1000's of feet above sea level. Very pretty.
Nimrod's castle. It has a couple different layers. But it
was mostly built up to keep the Crusaders out of Syria. It succeeded. The place
is really extreme.
A cistern at Nimrod's castle. Doesn't that sight make you thirsty?
A temple to Pan at Bainos. The niches is where the idols were. A temple was
built out from the rock. It was around here somewhere that Jesus renamed Simon
to Peter, "the Rock." Looking at this mountain, which rises hundreds
of feet up of pure stone, it is easy to see why the gates of hell will not
prevail.
Living water at Bainos. It seriously does look like the water just jumps right out of the rocks.
More living water at Tel Dan. This is the largest natural spring in the whole
Middle East. The water is pure, cold, and refreshing. The stuff I drank had a
slightly leafy taste though. Yum.
Day #3: The Kinneret:
Mt.
Hippus. It looks more exciting at 5 in the morning. Really.
This
is the remains of the house of St. Peter. This place was just found in the
1990's. The house is a basic insula, which are little shack places all the
common folk lived in. Later, octagonal churches were built over the site. You
can see about five larger and larger octagons as the church grew. The Franciscans
have built a church over top of the site, protecting the ruins below and
continuing the tradition of the holy site. The church is supposed to look like a
boat, but common belief is that it looks like a spaceship. We had a theory that
at the end of time the 144 faithful would take this spaceship to heaven. We
could start a cult. It wouldn't be the only one here in Jerusalem.
This is the synagogue at Capernaum. It is right across the
street from St. Peter's house. The lower layer of black stones date to the
synagogue that stood here in the first century that Jesus would have gone to.
At the end of the day we climbed down Mt. Arbel, the cliff you see at the right.
Arbel is this natural pass where the ancient International Highway went through
to get to Galilee and Damascus. Up on top you can see the whole Kinneret, all
the way over to Golan Heights. Climbing down isn't so bad, there are rappelling
ropes in some of the trickier places. Halfway down there are remains of a
Crusader fort that was carved right into the rock. That was super neat.
