Alright, I know these are getting shorter, but I’ll tell more stories when I get home and have more time to write. Right now I’m doing well to get anything written at all. I’m just having too much fun to stop and write down what’s happening. Most of you should be able to understand that.
Our first stop on Friday was Chorzin; the third of the cities that Jesus cursed. Yes, more piles of old rocks. However, I think I enjoyed these the best of all the biblical ruins so far. We were the only people at the site and as such were able to enjoy it to the fullest extent possible. I think I was on top of the walls more than I was on the ground. Yeah, lots of climbing fun. I really enjoyed that.
One of the coolest things there was they had rebuilt the interior supports on a couple of the houses there to give visitors an idea of how building was done back around the time of Christ. Seeing as how I work in construction to a certain extent, that was quite fascinating. BJ, you’re going to love some of those pictures I got. Especially the ones from the top down.
From there we headed out to the Meshushim Pool, a nature preserve with some fascinating rock formations and waterfalls. Yes, we’re seeing a lot of rocks over here. Not that I mind, I love rocks; particularly climbing on them. Beth’s getting tired of them, but you’ll have to ask her about that.
The funny (or not so funny) part was that to get down to the pool itself you had to walk a kilometer and a half down to it. Notice: I said “down” to it. That’s exactly what I meant. It was like the road up Mount Tabor, only thinner and for walking on. It was fun (except for the part where I slipped and twisted my knee) and the pool itself was amazing. Well worth the trek.
But then we had to walk back out. That’s right, we went way down and had to come back way up. It was quite the hike. I probably wouldn’t have felt it too much except for the fact that my knee was hurting. That slowed me down considerably. But it turned out well because by the time I got to the top I had walked off the pain and haven’t felt it since. So yeah, that was great.
Our next stop was Tel Hazor. At Tel Megiddo we had missed being able to see the water system because it was closed. Tel Hazor has an almost identical system and that was open so we were able to see that. Let me explain this system real quick.
The basic idea is that you dig a big hole with paths around the edge to climb down. Then at the bottom of this hole you dig a tunnel straight out under the city walls to where a water spring is. At that point you close off the tunnel from the outside and you’re done. A lot more work than it sounds, I’m sure, but that’s the idea.
There at Tel Hazor they have put in stairs down to the tunnel so you can go look at it. Basically you had to walk down four steps of stairs to get to the spiral stairs. Then you walk down three flights worth of spiral stairs. Then you walk down another two or three flights of stairs and THEN you get to look at the tunnel. It was pretty cool, actually. I really got a kick out of it.
After our time at Hazor we once again drove west to the Mediterranean. This time we went to the town of Akko, had a late lunch, and walked around some of the Crusader ruins and just enjoyed wandering the busy streets. It made a very nice ending to a great day. On top of that it was the best Falafel I’ve had yet. Very, very good…
Our first stop on Friday was Chorzin; the third of the cities that Jesus cursed. Yes, more piles of old rocks. However, I think I enjoyed these the best of all the biblical ruins so far. We were the only people at the site and as such were able to enjoy it to the fullest extent possible. I think I was on top of the walls more than I was on the ground. Yeah, lots of climbing fun. I really enjoyed that.One of the coolest things there was they had rebuilt the interior supports on a couple of the houses there to give visitors an idea of how building was done back around the time of Christ. Seeing as how I work in construction to a certain extent, that was quite fascinating. BJ, you’re going to love some of those pictures I got. Especially the ones from the top down.
From there we headed out to the Meshushim Pool, a nature preserve with some fascinating rock formations and waterfalls. Yes, we’re seeing a lot of rocks over here. Not that I mind, I love rocks; particularly climbing on them. Beth’s getting tired of them, but you’ll have to ask her about that.
The funny (or not so funny) part was that to get down to the pool itself you had to walk a kilometer and a half down to it. Notice: I said “down” to it. That’s exactly what I meant. It was like the road up Mount Tabor, only thinner and for walking on. It was fun (except for the part where I slipped and twisted my knee) and the pool itself was amazing. Well worth the trek.
But then we had to walk back out. That’s right, we went way down and had to come back way up. It was quite the hike. I probably wouldn’t have felt it too much except for the fact that my knee was hurting. That slowed me down considerably. But it turned out well because by the time I got to the top I had walked off the pain and haven’t felt it since. So yeah, that was great.
Our next stop was Tel Hazor. At Tel Megiddo we had missed being able to see the water system because it was closed. Tel Hazor has an almost identical system and that was open so we were able to see that. Let me explain this system real quick.
The basic idea is that you dig a big hole with paths around the edge to climb down. Then at the bottom of this hole you dig a tunnel straight out under the city walls to where a water spring is. At that point you close off the tunnel from the outside and you’re done. A lot more work than it sounds, I’m sure, but that’s the idea.
There at Tel Hazor they have put in stairs down to the tunnel so you can go look at it. Basically you had to walk down four steps of stairs to get to the spiral stairs. Then you walk down three flights worth of spiral stairs. Then you walk down another two or three flights of stairs and THEN you get to look at the tunnel. It was pretty cool, actually. I really got a kick out of it.
After our time at Hazor we once again drove west to the Mediterranean. This time we went to the town of Akko, had a late lunch, and walked around some of the Crusader ruins and just enjoyed wandering the busy streets. It made a very nice ending to a great day. On top of that it was the best Falafel I’ve had yet. Very, very good…
2 comments:
I definitely understand how it is hard to write when you're having so much fun. But you are doing a great job.
Don't forget how valuable this "outline" will be when you get back.
Photos of the excavation of Hazor taken during the 2003 season Hazor Excavation
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