Galilee Part 1

Galilee was amazing. The land is so different there, so beautiful! We did SO MUCH and went non-stop every day, so to fit it all in, I’m just going to give you the basics. I’ll have to do it in two parts, so this is just the first half of the trip! On the way up to Galilee, we stopped at Caesarea Maritima on the Mediterranean coast. The city was a man-made harbor built by Herod the Great, and was a residence of Pontius Pilate as well. Paul was imprisoned here at some point too. It was interesting because our professor had dug at the excavations there, so she knew a lot of really neat things about the site and the process of excavating.

The racetrack at Caesarea Maritima with Herod's palace behind it to the left.

Then we went to Megiddo, which is a huge site, with like 26 layers of ruins, meaning 26 different cities had been built here on top of each other. There were so many terrible wars here, that the word Armageddon comes from Megiddo. One excavation trench goes all the way down to the Canaanite period and has a huge round altar. We also climbed down the water source tunnels here, because we like tunnels!

The Canaanite altar at Megiddo



We stayed overnight in Nazareth, which is surprisingly a big modern city now. No tall buildings or anything, but nice shopping and restaurants, and lots of young people out and about. Its basically the last big Christian city left in Israel. We drove to Mount Tabor in the morning, which is the mountain on which the Transfiguration took place. It has a very distinctive rounded shape and is visible from almost everywhere throughout the region. I’ve learned that Jesus was really good about choosing locations. The church on top has a beautiful mosaic of the transfiguration, and two chapels in the back dedicated to Moses and Elijah since the Apostles didn’t get to construct the tents they wanted to. 

Mount Tabor from a distance



Then we went to Sepphoris, which was the big city back in the day. It was being built in the first part of the first century, so many scholars believe that Joseph worked there building the city since he was a craftsman and Nazareth had nothing but farming. The site was nice, with a synagogue that had beautiful mosaics, and a bathhouse that has a mosaic of a woman who has come to be known as the Mona Lisa of Sepphoris. It was really pretty. 

Mona Lisa of Sepphoris



Then we went back into Nazareth, where we went to the Church of the Annunciation. It was built over a cave-house that is believed to have been Mary’s. The courtyard was covered in Mosaics form all over the world, depicting Mary as a native woman of that country. It was beautiful. We had Mass there, which was really great, except that there were so many tourists watching and taking pictures that it almost felt like we were putting on a show or something. (2407)

The Church of the Annunciation. The cave house is to the left.

The next day we went to Tel Dan, which is the northernmost point of Israel. It is a beautiful forested area with fresh springs that feed the Jordan river. It was so refreshing to walk in the shade of the trees and smell the earth. So different from the arid lands further south. Dan has an awesome mud-brick gate from the Canaanite period. Mud bricks usually arent preserved because they are mud, so they melt. But this was covered, so it was a really rare and important find. There was also inside the city walls from a later period, the benches on which the elders of the town would sit and talk and people would come to them for judgment and wisdom, so we made the elders of our group sit there. (2451)(2458)

Lori and I playing in the spring



The mud brick gate

Then we went to Banias, also known as Caesarea Philippi. This was the site that I had to research ahead of time, and give a presentation at the site. It was so meat to see everything come to life that I had read about. There are beautiful red cliffs overlooking the city, and a big natural cave which used to have a spring that feeds the Jordan. Now the spring is underground. The people of Jesus’ time dedicated the site to the god Pan and carved several niches in the cliff where they placed statues of Pan and other gods. It was here that Jesus asked his apostles the question “Who do you say that I am?” With these pagan Gods in the background, Peter’s response that Jesus is the Messiah, Son of the living God would have been a direct challenge to those gods. Then Jesus declares Peter as the “rock” on which he will build the church, which is in contrast to the gods in the rock that the gentiles worshipped. After exploring the temple area, we took a long hike to a beautiful waterfall!

Me pretending to be a statue of Pan in the niches.



The beautiful waterfall

Monday we started at Tel Hazor, which was a huge city. Joshua destroyed the Canaanite City, and later King Solomon built it up. There is a great example of the 6 chambered gets which may be unique to Solomon. Soldiers would hide in these chambers and ambush invaders. There are also great examples of houses, and in the palace area you can see the burn marks and ashes of a great fire that destroyed the city, which may or may not have been from Joshua’s conquest. Then we went to Chorazim, which is a city right on the Sea of Galilee, and unfortunately one of the cities that Jesus condemns because they did not change their ways after seeing the miracles he performed. The city was built out of black basalt stone from the region, so it is completely black. It may have looked stunning when it was all built, but the black made the ruins look very dreary and absorbed a ton of heat. My theory is that the people were too hot and depressed to repent. The synagogue there is really neat and has a seat of Moses on which the scribes, Pharisees and others with teaching authorities would have taught from the Torah. Of course being from CTU, we took a picture of all of the women around the seat!

The depressing city of Chorazim.



The women around the seat of Moses

Then we went to the cliffs of Mount Arbel, which have the most breath-taking view of the Sea of Galilee. It is so blue! When we got to the hotel, we immediately changed into our bathing suits and went swimming in the sea. It was surprisingly warm! It really did feel like taking a soothing bath because the waves were very gentle and just kinda rolled you around. It was so refreshing. Now I see why Jesus spent so much time on the Sea of Galilee!

More to come in the next post!

 



Me on the cliffs of Mount Arbel




Sunset on the Sea of Galilee. How perfect!