Brrrrr rabbit!
It was cold, rainy & windy today! We were like that kid in A
Christmas Story—so many layers!
I wore my Northface Denali jacket over a rain/wind breaker, over a
fleece vest, over a fleece pullover.
I layered according to size.
And wool socks, and an earwarmer/headband, AND Smartwool socks stuffed
with handwarmers for gloves. And I
was very content.
Today we went “off the beaten path” according to Naomi—to do
some not so touristy things & try to get some things done in spite of the
weather. We drove west & then
south—the area between the coast & the mountains—really looked like the
Texas hill country—green hills, short shrubs, mixed in with pine trees, olive
trees & lots of purple & yellow wild flowers. We drove to Bet Shemesh—the area where Samson was from &
the area occupied by the Philistines during that time.
So cold & windy!
Then we drove thru the Valley of Elah (mountains run north to south here & valleys run
east to west)—the valleys were ancient roads across the country from east to
west. We drove to the Bet
Guvrin-Maresha National Park—where we went into an archeological dig area at
Tel Maresha. We met with an
archeologist (who has been digging there 26 years!) who invites groups to come
“dig for a day”. This whole area
is chalk stone—much softer stone than the limestone of the mountain. People who lived in this area dug
quarries underground & used the stone to build their houses. Then they used the quarries as
“basements”. Tel Maresha has about
5,000 caves all dating back 2,200-2,300 years ago. The caves are all in units containing several rooms. We went in unit 169—I could see 8 or 9
rooms in the unit we were in & it went on further than I could see or we
were allowed to go. We got to spend
a few minutes digging—everyone got tools & buckets. The archeologist showed us what they
do—how they dig & put dirt in the buckets—sometimes not even looking at
what’s going in the buckets since they’re going to sort it back above the
ground. Mom & I had fun not
caring about what we were putting in the buckets. We found two pieces of pottery & what we are sure is a
piece of bone while we were digging!
Unfortunately they don’t care about pottery unless it’s a major piece or
has writing on it. One guy in our
group found a super old coin!
Everything underground (or potentially worth something) stays at the site though. It was so fun! And nice to be underground & out of
the wind!
We dig Israel!
Not caring what's in my dirt. :)
Then we drove back thru the Valley of Elah (we weren’t able
to stop by the brook & get stones because of the weather & we’d
probably run out of time since the dig site was so fun!) to lunch—McDonald’s or
Aroma Coffee. We had
Aroma—eggplant sandwich & Portobello mushroom sandwich—yum! And coffee—felt so good to hold
something warm!
We then drove back to Jerusalem & spent the rest of the
afternoon in the City of David—walked through some ruins of what was probably
King David’s palace & learned some history of this city & it’s
connection to Jerusalem—it’s just south of the walls of the Old City. From there a few in our group walked
through Hezekiah’s Tunnel (very narrow & water up to your waist) and the
rest of us walked Warren’s Shaft (very narrow but dry!). I’m really not sure who Warren is or
why he built this tunnel but I am thankful he did. I’ll look him up later. It was dark & the stone was slippery in some places
(thank goodness I had two headlamps!), but it was fun to do!
Look how narrow this tunnel is!
But we are happy because we have headlamps!
Then we saw the Pool of Silom where Jesus healed the blind
man with his spit & some mud.
Tomorrow there’s a marathon thru Jerusalem so the roads are closed &
we’ll be walking! Another day for
layers! Tomorrow’s also our last
day here! This might be my last
post, tomorrow night I should probably pack! Here’s hoping everything fits & is under 50 lbs! I’m bringing back all kinds of
treasures—spiritual & physical! :)
1 comment:
Sounds amazing!
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