Still Tuesday, July 15. We drove to the north of Israel to Dan, and visited a nature reserve. I didn’t realize Israel had so much green countryside; it was beautiful. We went on a two-mile walk, mostly over river rock. The river Dan is part of the headwaters of the Jordan, one of three rivers that form it. We saw the high place of Jeroboam, who told the people of Israel, the Northern Kingdom, that there was no need to go down to Jerusalem to worship. He brought in idols and started them on idol-worshipping. Israel never had a righteous king in all its history, beginning with Jeroboam. We saw ruins from King Ahab’s time, and turning a corner, we came upon a large mud-brick structure, almost 4,000 years old, Abraham’s time. It was just in the middle of a field and they had put a cover over it to protect it from the elements.
We visited Banias, Caesarea Philipi. This area was dedicated to the god Pan or Panias but the Turks couldn’t say Panias but pronounced it Banias. The river here, the Banias, is another of the headwaters of the Jordan.
We then drove through the Golan Heights and saw remains of battles, burned out tanks, fields still full of mines. One can see why Israel wants this area; it overlooks the fertile fields below making them very vulnerable to an enemy. We spent another night in Ein Gev. While waiting for our lecture that evening, by the sea of Galilee, one of the women started singing "Memories of Galilee" in Spanish. Many joined in singing in English.
Wednesday, July 15. We left the area of Galilee and drove south to Bet Sehe’an, or Beit She’an, depending on which literature you are looking at. Nothing, as far as spelling goes, is consistent, whether in Israel or Egypt This is a ruin that has 18 levels of civilization. There is a large tel in the background and at the bottom are many Roman ruins. The archeologists have decided to concentrate on Roman civilization as it is the most interesting. There is a column-lined street, baths, and a theater in quite good condition.
Our next stop was Jericho. a Palestinian city. We be bought pottery there. In the distance one can see the Monastery of St. George on the mountain which begins the area of Jesus’ temptation. We saw the spring of Elisha, which he healed as its waters were bitter. It is still a major source of water for the area. We visited the ruins of ancient Jericho, looking down on a round tower that I have seen in many pictures.
We drove along the old Roman road between Jericho and Jerusalem, it winds around a lot. About half way we stopped at Wadi Kelt or Quelt, a very deep narow valley that has a brook and trees at the bottom. This is said to be the place where Elijah was fed by the ravens. This area is very desolate but does have a little plant life.
Our next stop was Bethany. We saw a church that was built over the site of the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus. It is built over crusader ruins, which was built over Byzantine ruins. Across the street is the entrance, but not the original one, to Lazarus’ tomb. One climbs down many steep steps then way down into a chamber.
We next drove to Jerusalem and our hotel, the Seven Arches, which overlooks the old city. What a magnificent view. We will be here the remainder of our time in Israel. It is good to be in one place for a while. That night, we visited Jimmy’s, an olive wood shop where I bought a nativity set.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Monday, December 7, 2009
Mt. Tabor, Sea of Galilee
Sunday, July 12. We left Egypt and flew to Tel Aviv. What a contrast! It was so clean at the airport and the restrooms were immaculate and no one waiting for a tip. Our guide was Ron Amos, an Israeli, and our bus driver Eddie, a Palestinian.
We drove to Jaffa, also known as Joppa, a suburb of Tel Aviv, and walked down old narrow city alleys. They were clean and felt medieval. We drove to Caesarea and saw old Roman ruins. Harod built the city and, since he was raised in Rome, that is the style. We saw an old Roman theater and the remains of a crusader fortress. We also saw the remains of the port of Harold the great, an aqueduct built by Romans and waded in the Mediterranean. It was warm and looked beautiful.
We then drove to the Carmel beach Hotel in Haifa, a very modern, new hotel. The food looked delicious and tasted delicious. We could eat everything and drink the water! Everyone pigged out on the salads as we had not been able to eat them in Egypt. Our room was clean and beautiful and everything worked.
The money is called shekels and the small coins argorot. The exchange is about 3.6 shekels to the dollar. The hotel had video screens set up as the soccer world cup would be played either the next day or the next.
Monday July 13. Haifa is built between the seashore and Mt. Carmel. There is a saying that Jerusalem prays, Tel Aviv plays and Haifa pays. It is a hardworking city. We visited Mt. Carmel or Muhraka, the site where Elijah confronted the 450 priest of Baal. There is a Carmelite monastery on top with a large statue of Elijah. It overlooks the valley of Jesreel.
We dove to Megiddo and visited the tel there. 21 layers of civilization have been uncovered there. We walked through the north gate, built in the 15th century b.c. and walked through a water tunnel built by king Ahab in the 9th century b.c. There were people engaged in excavating under black awnings while we were there.
Next we visited Mt. Tabor, one of the places thought to be where Jesus was transfigured before Peter, James and John. The other place is Mt. Hermon. We were told that Pres Kimball felt Mt Tabor was the correct place. To get to the top of the mountain we had to get in 8-passenger taxis and drive up a very windy road to the top. It was a rather wild ride with Palestinian music playing. Another nice church is built on the summit.
We next drove to Nazareth, visited the site of an old synagogue and the Church of the Annunciation, a very modern church. We saw a place where excavations had uncovered a pavement dating to Jesus’ time.
Our destination for the night was the kibbutz Ein Gev, on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, right across the water from the city of Tiberias. The main business of this kibbutz is their holiday village, also a famous fish restaurant, plus some farming. We stayed in a nice apartment that had a stove, sink and refrigerator. We had a back porch overlooking the village and part of the lake. The food was very good. That night instead of our usual talk we had a lecture on life in a kibbutz from a man from Connecticut. When age 19 he had come to Israel to see what a kibbutz was like; he enjoyed it and has been here ever since, about 27 years.
Tuesday, July 14. We started the day with a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee to the city of Tiberius on the opposite shore to Ein Gev. When we were in the middle of the lake the boat stopped and Bro. Nyman played a tape of the tab choir singing "Master the Tempest Is Raging" and we all sang along. One of the crew threw a net over the side demonstrating fishing techniques of the past. Bro. Nyman said these modern guys never catch anything, but it was interesting to see.
We went to a museum where we saw a video about finding an ancient fishing vessel, dating to the 1st century. It was found in 1986 when a drought dropped the level of the lake. We then saw the actual boat, behind glass, and soaked in some kind of preservative.
We drove to the Sermon on the Mount siteand Bro. Nyman gave a lecture on the Beatitudes. The Church of the Beatitudes is a very lovely, modern one and the grounds were beautiful. We saw much bougainvillea, red, purple, pink, orange and white. We saw this all over Israel, such a beautiful site.
We walked along the lakeshore where there are some heart-shaped stones. This is supposed to be the site where Jesus asked Peter "Lovest Thou Me?..Feed My Sheep". It is called Peter’s Primacy. Bro.. Nyman told about Elder LeGrande Richards, that when he visited that place he took his shoes off and waded in the water.
We next visited the ruins of Capernaum and saw the ruins of Peter’s or his mother-in-law’s house; ruins of houses from Jesus’ time, these were of black basalt and must have been hot in the summer. We saw ruins of a synagogue built on the black stone foundation of the synagogue of Jesus’ time. We saw an olive press and a Roman milestone. More beatuiful bougainvillea in gorgeous colors. The flowers have been beautiful in Israel.
We drove to Jaffa, also known as Joppa, a suburb of Tel Aviv, and walked down old narrow city alleys. They were clean and felt medieval. We drove to Caesarea and saw old Roman ruins. Harod built the city and, since he was raised in Rome, that is the style. We saw an old Roman theater and the remains of a crusader fortress. We also saw the remains of the port of Harold the great, an aqueduct built by Romans and waded in the Mediterranean. It was warm and looked beautiful.
We then drove to the Carmel beach Hotel in Haifa, a very modern, new hotel. The food looked delicious and tasted delicious. We could eat everything and drink the water! Everyone pigged out on the salads as we had not been able to eat them in Egypt. Our room was clean and beautiful and everything worked.
The money is called shekels and the small coins argorot. The exchange is about 3.6 shekels to the dollar. The hotel had video screens set up as the soccer world cup would be played either the next day or the next.
Monday July 13. Haifa is built between the seashore and Mt. Carmel. There is a saying that Jerusalem prays, Tel Aviv plays and Haifa pays. It is a hardworking city. We visited Mt. Carmel or Muhraka, the site where Elijah confronted the 450 priest of Baal. There is a Carmelite monastery on top with a large statue of Elijah. It overlooks the valley of Jesreel.
We dove to Megiddo and visited the tel there. 21 layers of civilization have been uncovered there. We walked through the north gate, built in the 15th century b.c. and walked through a water tunnel built by king Ahab in the 9th century b.c. There were people engaged in excavating under black awnings while we were there.
Next we visited Mt. Tabor, one of the places thought to be where Jesus was transfigured before Peter, James and John. The other place is Mt. Hermon. We were told that Pres Kimball felt Mt Tabor was the correct place. To get to the top of the mountain we had to get in 8-passenger taxis and drive up a very windy road to the top. It was a rather wild ride with Palestinian music playing. Another nice church is built on the summit.
We next drove to Nazareth, visited the site of an old synagogue and the Church of the Annunciation, a very modern church. We saw a place where excavations had uncovered a pavement dating to Jesus’ time.
Our destination for the night was the kibbutz Ein Gev, on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, right across the water from the city of Tiberias. The main business of this kibbutz is their holiday village, also a famous fish restaurant, plus some farming. We stayed in a nice apartment that had a stove, sink and refrigerator. We had a back porch overlooking the village and part of the lake. The food was very good. That night instead of our usual talk we had a lecture on life in a kibbutz from a man from Connecticut. When age 19 he had come to Israel to see what a kibbutz was like; he enjoyed it and has been here ever since, about 27 years.
Tuesday, July 14. We started the day with a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee to the city of Tiberius on the opposite shore to Ein Gev. When we were in the middle of the lake the boat stopped and Bro. Nyman played a tape of the tab choir singing "Master the Tempest Is Raging" and we all sang along. One of the crew threw a net over the side demonstrating fishing techniques of the past. Bro. Nyman said these modern guys never catch anything, but it was interesting to see.
We went to a museum where we saw a video about finding an ancient fishing vessel, dating to the 1st century. It was found in 1986 when a drought dropped the level of the lake. We then saw the actual boat, behind glass, and soaked in some kind of preservative.
We drove to the Sermon on the Mount siteand Bro. Nyman gave a lecture on the Beatitudes. The Church of the Beatitudes is a very lovely, modern one and the grounds were beautiful. We saw much bougainvillea, red, purple, pink, orange and white. We saw this all over Israel, such a beautiful site.
We walked along the lakeshore where there are some heart-shaped stones. This is supposed to be the site where Jesus asked Peter "Lovest Thou Me?..Feed My Sheep". It is called Peter’s Primacy. Bro.. Nyman told about Elder LeGrande Richards, that when he visited that place he took his shoes off and waded in the water.
We next visited the ruins of Capernaum and saw the ruins of Peter’s or his mother-in-law’s house; ruins of houses from Jesus’ time, these were of black basalt and must have been hot in the summer. We saw ruins of a synagogue built on the black stone foundation of the synagogue of Jesus’ time. We saw an olive press and a Roman milestone. More beatuiful bougainvillea in gorgeous colors. The flowers have been beautiful in Israel.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Visiting Karnak and around Cairo
On Friday July 10, we got into 4-passenger carriages which took us to the temple complex of Karnak. This is where those huge columns are seen in the movie "Death on the Nile". They were overwhelming. We saw the row of ram sphinxes, statues of Ramses II and others. Most pharaohs added to the great complex, even Alexander the Great.
We got back in our carriages and went to see Luxor, another temple complex about two miles from of Karnak. In ancient days there was a road lined with sphinxes that ran between the two temples. Now only a small part remains. One of the obelisks that stood outside the Luxor complex in front was sent to France and was placed in the Place de la Concorde.
After lunch we flew back to Cairo, same hotel but different room. After dinner we dressed in Sunday clothes and held sacrament meeting in a room in the hotel basement. Friday is the Sabbath for Muslims so members hold church meetings on that day.
Saturday, July 11. We drove past the 700-year-old city of the dead that has people living in it. The Muslims build two little rooms, under which they bury their dead; the women on one side and men on the other. The rooms are visited periodically by living relative to bring offerings and to hold memorial services in. When poor people realize that a family has died out and no one will be visiting, they move in. The cemetery is vast and covers many acres.
We went to the Citadel of Saladin, of Richard the Lionhearted fame. Inside is the beautiful alabaster Mosque, built last century by Mohammed Ali. It is built on the order of the famous Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. We had to remove our shoes and put on slippers to go in. If we had been wearing shorts or sleeveless blouses, we would have had to put on long green robes. I saw several women wearing them. The mosque is large and empty inside, the floor covered in carpets. The ceiling is a beautiful green with gold designs. There is a stairway leading to a pulpit where the Imam preaches on Fridays. It was very fancy and ornate but is no longer in use; another one, not as fancy, is used today.
Our guide Mohammed had us sit on the rug while he explained about the religion of Islam. The five pillars of Islam are 1) one has to confess that there is no god bu Alah and that Mohammed is his prophet; 2) pray five times towards Mecca; 3) observe the fast of Ramadan; 4) pay 2 1/2% yearly on all one possess and 5), if possible, make the pilgrimage to Mecca. Women and men pray in separate sections in the mosque; the women’s being smaller as mostly men come to the mosques to pray.
We visited the Cairo Museum. It is very large, a little dusty but not quite as Amelia Peabody described in her book. We concentrated mostly on the treasure of Tutankhamen and what a treasure it is! We saw the jewelry and the famous mask, they are housed in a separate room with guards present. We saw the four large gold-covered boxes that surrounded the sarcophogus , one fitting inside the other. We saw the throne with the famous picture of Tut and his queen together.
We drove within one block of Shepheard’s Hotel, famous for the many people who stayed in it in the 1800s. I wish I could have seen it but didn’t feel so badly after finding out later that the building burned down years ago and this is a new one. Our lunch was on a moored boat on the Nile. Lovely looking food be we were not able to eat a lot of it because of the unclean water.
We had a Tourist and Antiquities guard on each bus in Egypt. We also had a police car escort when we went sightseeing in Cairo. There were soldiers mounted on camels with machine guns at the pyramids at Giza and Sakkara. Soldiers were visible at all tourist attractions. Egypt did not want a repeat of the massacre that had occurred a few months earlier at Queen Hatshepsut’s monument.
One thought that kept coming to my mind while in Egypt was that I would not like to be a mother of children there, so much poverty and filth. It would be so hard to bring up healthy children. What a blessing to live in our country.
We got back in our carriages and went to see Luxor, another temple complex about two miles from of Karnak. In ancient days there was a road lined with sphinxes that ran between the two temples. Now only a small part remains. One of the obelisks that stood outside the Luxor complex in front was sent to France and was placed in the Place de la Concorde.
After lunch we flew back to Cairo, same hotel but different room. After dinner we dressed in Sunday clothes and held sacrament meeting in a room in the hotel basement. Friday is the Sabbath for Muslims so members hold church meetings on that day.
Saturday, July 11. We drove past the 700-year-old city of the dead that has people living in it. The Muslims build two little rooms, under which they bury their dead; the women on one side and men on the other. The rooms are visited periodically by living relative to bring offerings and to hold memorial services in. When poor people realize that a family has died out and no one will be visiting, they move in. The cemetery is vast and covers many acres.
We went to the Citadel of Saladin, of Richard the Lionhearted fame. Inside is the beautiful alabaster Mosque, built last century by Mohammed Ali. It is built on the order of the famous Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. We had to remove our shoes and put on slippers to go in. If we had been wearing shorts or sleeveless blouses, we would have had to put on long green robes. I saw several women wearing them. The mosque is large and empty inside, the floor covered in carpets. The ceiling is a beautiful green with gold designs. There is a stairway leading to a pulpit where the Imam preaches on Fridays. It was very fancy and ornate but is no longer in use; another one, not as fancy, is used today.
Our guide Mohammed had us sit on the rug while he explained about the religion of Islam. The five pillars of Islam are 1) one has to confess that there is no god bu Alah and that Mohammed is his prophet; 2) pray five times towards Mecca; 3) observe the fast of Ramadan; 4) pay 2 1/2% yearly on all one possess and 5), if possible, make the pilgrimage to Mecca. Women and men pray in separate sections in the mosque; the women’s being smaller as mostly men come to the mosques to pray.
We visited the Cairo Museum. It is very large, a little dusty but not quite as Amelia Peabody described in her book. We concentrated mostly on the treasure of Tutankhamen and what a treasure it is! We saw the jewelry and the famous mask, they are housed in a separate room with guards present. We saw the four large gold-covered boxes that surrounded the sarcophogus , one fitting inside the other. We saw the throne with the famous picture of Tut and his queen together.
We drove within one block of Shepheard’s Hotel, famous for the many people who stayed in it in the 1800s. I wish I could have seen it but didn’t feel so badly after finding out later that the building burned down years ago and this is a new one. Our lunch was on a moored boat on the Nile. Lovely looking food be we were not able to eat a lot of it because of the unclean water.
We had a Tourist and Antiquities guard on each bus in Egypt. We also had a police car escort when we went sightseeing in Cairo. There were soldiers mounted on camels with machine guns at the pyramids at Giza and Sakkara. Soldiers were visible at all tourist attractions. Egypt did not want a repeat of the massacre that had occurred a few months earlier at Queen Hatshepsut’s monument.
One thought that kept coming to my mind while in Egypt was that I would not like to be a mother of children there, so much poverty and filth. It would be so hard to bring up healthy children. What a blessing to live in our country.
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