Post-Egypt Week
I had a very exciting week. We went on 3 field trips and I did several things in the city. On Monday, Oct 1 I hung out at the JC doing homework. It was not a very eventful day. On Tuesday, I had class in the morning and then I went with a group of students to a couple sites in East Jerusalem. We went to the mosque of the ascension and to the tomb of the prophets. The mosque was small but cool.
The tomb of the prophets is the supposed burial place of Haggai and Micah. It was really cool. We were each given a candle and we were able to wander around the catacomb looking at tombs. We were shown a tomb that was originally thought to be Christ’s tomb. We had a lot of fun.
That evening, two of my roomates (Bekah, Jocelyn) and I invented a new game. We called it footbowl. It involved 10 waterbottles full of water and a soccer ball. We set the waterbottles up as bowling pins and then kicked the soccer ball to knock them down. We had a blast playing. At the beginning of the game, one of the guys came and stole one of the waterbottles cause he was going running. He came back at the end of the game with a re-filled waterbottle and promptly started dumping it on all of us. We grabbed the rest of the bottles and all got soaked. It was way fun.
On Wednesday, we went on the “Conquest Field Trip.” We went to both the Tels of New Testament and Old Testament Jericho. New Testament Jericho was nicely maintained, but Old Testament Jericho has been neglected. We were still able to see the oldest man-made structure known, an old storage tower dated at about 8000 BC.
After visiting Jericho, we went up onto the mountain overlooking Jericho and climbed up to a monastery perched halfway up the mount. It was a beautiful view from the monastery. The monastery claims to have the stone that Satan tempted Christ to turn to bread. Even though I typically don’t believe that the traditional sights of many of the bible events are real, I still enjoy honoring the various events.
On Thursday, two of my roomies and one of the guys went to the Jerusalem Zoo. It is a wonderful Zoo. It is well taken care of, there are lots of animals, and the animals have large cages. A lot of the animals were playing and moving around their cages. It was way fun. Because Thursday was a Jewish holiday (Simchat Tora, the end of Succot), the Zoo closed an hour earlier than we were expecting it to. So, we’re planning on going back this week.
On Friday, we had the Judges Field Trip. We went all through the Shephelah (the low hills). We went first to Beth Shemesh, where the Philistines returned the Ark of the Covenant after they had stolen it and it had started causing the plague.
After Beth Shemesh, we went to Azekah. Azekah was one of the cities held by the Philistines for a long time. It was one of the cities the Philistines had control over that lead to the meeting between David and Goliath. The area was constantly being fought over. It was a very strategic city to hold to protect Jerusalem.
We then went to the Elah Valley. This is where David and Goliath fought. We did a reenactment of the battle. It was fun.
After Elah, we went to Maresha. Maresha was an Idumean city. Both Micah and Herod Antipus were born in Maresha. Maresha had a lot of dove coves. They were caves carved down into the ground with thousands of dove perches. We were able to walk down into them. We also saw an ancient olive press.
After Maresha, we went to Lachish. Lachish was the most important city we visited. Lachish guarded the second easiest pass up to Jerusalem. However, the easiest pass was always very heavily guarded, so many different groups attacked Jerusalem by first attacking Lachish.
After Lachish, we went to a set of caves to climb around in. There was absolutely no significance to the caves, but we had a ton of fun. The rock was really chalky, so we all got horribly dirty. It was a blast. We climbed through holes and I even got raised up into a hole in the ceiling. It was awesome.
On Saturday, we watched the Relief Society broadcast at 7 am, had a fast and testimony meeting at 10, I went to the garden tomb at 2:30, had dinner at 4, made cookies with one of the service couples at 4:45, watched the Saturday Morning session of conference at 6 pm, and the Saturday afternoon session at 10 pm. It was a wonderful day. I loved the two sessions of conference I saw. I’m very excited for President Eyring. I’ve always loved his talks, and now we get to hear more from him. Elder Wirthlin’s talk was amazing. You could tell how much he really wanted to deliver his message.
On Sunday, we had 5 am breakfast and were ready to load on the buses at 6, but our bus didn’t show up until 6:15. We headed up north to Megiddo (aka Armageddon). Megiddo is a very well taken care of Tel. It had many different level of occupation visible. Megiddo was destroyed 25 different times. It got its first major walls in the 16th Century BC. It has a great water system that we were able to walk through.
After Megiddo, we went to Nazereth. We went to the churches dedicated to both Mary and to Joseph. The churches were beautiful. In Mary’s church, there were beautiful mosaics and other art works donated by Christians from around the world.
We then went to Zipporis. Zipporis is a city built by the Romans as a retirement city for soldiers. It is likely that two carpenters from Nazereth would have come up to help build this city. Zipporis had beautiful mosaic floors. The mosiacs were remarkably well preserved.
We then went up to Mount Arbel and had a beautiful overlook of Galilee. We drove around the Sea of Galilee to our Kibbutz-style hotel. It was right on the sea. We were able to go swimming. The water was delightful. We played a keep-away, had chicken fights, and had a huge ultimate frisbee game in the shallows. It was so much fun. We then watched the sun set over the Galilee. It was so beautiful. It was a wonderful day.
On Monday we were on the buses at 7:30 and we drove to Akko. Akko is the first natural harbor up the Mediterranean coast. It became a major trade center. It was where many different groups of invaders landed (Egyptians, Sea Peoples, Romans). It was Christianized, then taken over by Muslims, taken back by Crusaders, and again controlled by Muslims. The Crusaders built many things at Akko that are still there.
We then drove to Muhraka on Mt. Carmel. This is where Elijah challenged the Priests of Baal and then killed them. Sadly, it was a really hazy day because it is currently the change of seasons (from dry to wet), so we couldn’t see anything. Typically there is a wonderful view of the whole area from the mount. We did have a wonderful discussion about Elijah however.
After Muhraka, we went to Caesarea Maritima. This was an artificial harbor built by Herod the Great. It has been remarkably well taken care of and reconstructed. This is where Peter visits Cornelius, opening the door to Gentile conversion. The city, like most we visited, was controlled by Romans, Byzantine Christians, Arabs, Crusaders, and Muslims Mameluke leaders. We then headed back to the center.
It was a wonderful week. I hope all is well with y’all. I miss you all! Good luck this week.