Day 4 - Traveling to Nazareth, Megiddo, and Caesarea

Introduction

After just two nights, we've left the beautiful, tranquil Sea of Galilee and our hotel in Tiberias this morning and will visit the following places before settling into our Jerusalem hotel for the remaining days of our trip.

Just a few notes before getting into today's activities.  First, it looks like there were a lot of readers the last few days, nearly 200 if the behind the scenes statistics can be believed.  As I said in the "Welcome" post, what was intended for just a few family members has grown substantially.  Hope you continue to stop by and enjoy what I have to say.

Second, I have become aware that I have misspelled altar, spelling it alter, which is clearly not what I meant.  To be fair, I'm pretty happy if that's the only misspelling that makes it through given the short time I'm turning these around.

Third, in my haste to post yesterday's activities, I forgot to do something last night vital for vacations in exotic locations - I didn't charge the battery for my camera.  Sadly, I only got 18 pictures taken before the camera asked me to charge the battery.  Now I talked with some others from Harrison City and will be able to get some pictures from their cameras but that will mean this post will get an update sometime later this week.  A word of warning: although Dad will appear in most of them, several will likely include me as well.

Finally, feel free to ask any questions or put up other comments. 

As I mentioned at the beginning, we left Tiberias this morning, which happens to be the second lowest city on earth at 679 feet below sea level.  Jericho, in the West Bank, and a destination later in the week, is the lowest CITY at 846 feet below sea level.  The Dead Sea is the lowest LOCATION on earth at 1380 feet below sea level.

Nazareth

An insignificant village in the Galilean hills when Jesus grew up, Nazareth has a current population of 65,000 and along with being extremely busy with cars and pedestrians is filled with Jews, Christians, and Muslims, each trying to advance their religion.  They seem to do it pretty well and get along, unlike the problems evident in other parts of the Middle East.

We got off the bus and were promptly given a warning from Mick: "Watch where you're walking!"  Here's the reason:

These shin-shredder posts are likely in place to deter cars from using the sidewalks but due to their low height, apparently spend a lot of time attacking the lower legs of tourists.

Admittedly a little weird, here's another thing I find interesting traveling to foreign countries: man-hole covers.  I think it's interesting because in most of the US, they're very plain.  A lot of countries "dress them up" with something unique about that particular location.  Here's one from Nazareth:

Don't worry, things get better from here.

We walked a short distance to the Church of Saint Gabriel, built over the only Nazareth source for fresh water.  Not the best picture but this is the point I knew my shots were limited. I took this one, saw the problem and began conservation of the battery mode.

 

Here's one of the wooden pulpit and finally, what's referred to as Mary's Well:

From here we walked a bit through the town to a place where Mick purchased us a morning snack: Israeli pizza!  There were two kinds and they were both very good.  One had a spice mixture and sesame seeds on it and the other had goat cheese.  Here's the store front:

If I didn't know better, I would have thought that Mick was trying to get us lost as we wound our way through the back alleys of Nazareth.  Next interesting place we passed was this one (no sampling here, though :-)

Fresh goat and other meats ready for purchase!  Step right up...
 

The next actual destination was the Basilica of the Annunciation, the Catholic Church that enshrines a small grotto that many believe was the home of Mary and where the angel Gabriel appeared to her to announce she would "bear a son" and "call his name Jesus." My apologies again.  I would have liked to take several of this impressive entry way but the camera just didn't have the juice.

Here is the doorway depicting Christ's life:

And here is the altar (see - he CAN correct his own mistakes). Here, my friends, the pictures will sadly end for the day.  Until I can get SD cards from friends, you'll need to make do with some text about our last stops for today (to be clear, its Friday by the way as I type).  In an effort to make it up a bit, I'll leave you with this visual joke:

LET'S EAT GRANDMA

LET'S EAT, GRANDMA

------------------------------

commas save lives

(Tel) Megiddo

From Wikipedia, Tel (or Tell) is a type of archaeological mound created by human occupation and abandonment of a geographical site over many centuries.  Megiddo, a national park, is known for it's historical, geological, and theological importance, especially under its Greek name of Armageddon.  It was a site of great importance in the ancient world and its position on the main thoroughfare between Egypt and Assyria meant it was constantly being attacked for control.  Archaeologists have found the city has been rebuilt (REBUILT) 25 times over 4,500 years.  The site was inhabited from approximately 7000 BC to 586 BC.  The site climbs dramatically from the valley floor it's located in and overlooks the valley believed to be the location of the final battle of good versus evil as recorded in Revelation.  In addition to walking around the top most excavated ruins, we had the opportunity to walk down steps in a deep shaft to a horizontal tunnel dug through solid rock to enable the inhabitants to draw water from the area's only fresh water source without being discovered by whoever was attacking them.  It was 180 narrow steps of varying heights to get to the tunnel.  And, by the way, how did a perfectly straight tunnel get dug that long ago without modern equipment?  These folks were nobody's dummies.  It was just 83 steps to get out but I could definitely feel all 260 plus in my left knee when I was finished.  From here it was time to eat again and we went back to the park restaurant at the visitor's center and had some excellent falafel (fa-la-fel, accent on the second syllable), fries, and a Coke.  No pictures today so you get home work.  Look up falafel!

Caesarea

With the world's first modern harbor built for this city on the Mediterranean coast in the 1st century BC, Caesarea is famous for its archeological remains from the Romans, Byzantines, and Crusader eras.  King Herod gave the city its name, dedicating it to his patron, Augustus Caesar, who had crowned him King of the Jews around 30 BC. It is truly spectacular and I was crushed not to be able to share pictures of it.  We first stopped at the 2,000 year old aqueduct.  It's just an amazing achievement to see.  I really hope to share some pictures soon.  From here we sat in the 4,000 seat amphitheater, saw where the harbor stood during the time of Herod, and walked past the hippodrome ruins before heading back to the bus.  Simply amazing to see in person.

From Caesarea we traveled to our hotel Jerusalem about 75 miles away which, as I mentioned at the beginning of the post, will serve as our base of operations until our trip comes to an end. There were a few more things after Caesarea that I'll get into tomorrow but rest assured, gentle readers, I feel shame for not having pictures of Megiddo or Caesarea.  The camera batter is charging as I type and you should see more pictures tomorrow.

Thanks again for stopping by.
Tim