The TUNNEL

Almost every day we have to go through this tunnel at least once.   It is about 1 1/2 mile long.  In this photo the traffic doesn't look too bad, but there are times that it takes us 15 minutes to get through this tunnel.  It passes under the worst of the traffic around the old city, so believe it or not it is still better than driving on top.  The boys like to see if they can hold their breath the whole length of the tunnel.  

 Jeremy caught Jared doing some theatrics for your enjoyment.

 Is he going to make it????

O, curses, foiled again!

 This is an artists rendition based on the digs of what the theater originally looked like.  The theater was situated so that the sun was to the back of the audience and shown on the stage.  Most plays are thought to have been performed during daylight hours.  They had stuff coming up from under the stage as well as ropes and pulleys from the ceiling when they wanted certain "gods" to descend.

 dah,dah, ta dum ti dum!

where's Waldork?  

Powerful earthquakes took the city down.  After the first in 363 a.d. the city was partially rebuilt but the second considerably more powerful in 749 a.d. leveled the city and it was not built again until the modern era.   For a thousand years it was little more than a pit stop between Damascus and Cairo.  For the 1,000 years before that it was the capital of the Decapolis or the 10 Greek/Roman cities that ruled the area.    

 Here we see the Greek,Roman, Muslim Beit She'an.  As with most digs only a portion of the city has been uncovered.... and mostly government buildings or the "downtown" area of the town.  Back left is the amphitheater that could seat 20,000 people.  Back right is the public bath house complex.  You can see the Cardo maximus (main street) and the Cardo minimus in the lower left.  The vacant square us from the Muslim era and would have been filled with tables and stalls selling wares.  On the street going left to right are a couple of Roman temples.

 The public bath house was one of the prominent features of the ruins.  There were beautiful mosaic floors, message rooms, baths, steam rooms...

 ... and even an ancient public toilet facility for the convenience of their customers!

Uh Oh!   ... uh Jared!  I am sure that those toilets don't work any more....

Tell Beit She'an, Egyptian Ruins - 5 Feb 2012

a stella taken from the Egyptian governor's house is at right.  The layout of the governor's house is clearly visible below.  He had an incredible view. His house was probably destroyed by the Israelites under Joshua's command and the Egyptians driven out.

Another section of the tell

and a view from the tell looking east towards Jordan.  If you look closely, you can see the remnant of a Roman bridge among the trees.  This tell was bordered by 2 small rivers.  

Mt. Gilboa - 5 Feb 2012

In the background you can see Mt. Gilboa.  We are standing on top of the tell of Beit She'an.  I will show you some more photo's, but we are standing in the corridor that feeds into the valley of Armageddon to the west and the Jordan valley and on to Damascus, to the east.  Mt Gilboa is where King Saul and 3 of his sons, Jonathan, Abinadab and Malchi-shua died in a tremendous battle with the Philistines in about 1060 BC.  After he knew that his sons were dead,  Saul fell on his sword and killed himself, when his servant refused to kill him.   His entire army was pretty much wiped out and the Israelites in Beit She'an and the surrounding towns fled in terror and the Philistines moved into Beit She'an.  The next day they found Saul and his sons, on the battlefield, and cut their heads off and sent them home and hung the bodies on the walls of Beit She'an.  That night some valiant men from further down the valley (towards Armageddon valley) stole into the city and took down the bodies and brought them home for burial.

the tell of Beit She'an is a small area, about the size, on top, of a football field.  I am sure that it started out as a hill but it was built and destroyed either in wars or earthquakes about 17 times.  It's last inhabitants were the Egyptians.  In the foreground of this photo you can clearly see the mud bricks that were the preferred building materials of the Egyptians.  In the background is another view of Mt. Gilboa which is part of the Gilead mountain range that extends up to Jerusalem, about 30 miles away to the south.   

a Palestinian.... Dog?

      We were out walking and this caught our eye.... Kind of looks like the sign... don't you think?

 Many Christians believe with the Catholic Church that the crucifixion site is now in the north-west corner of the old city.  Outside the present walls however is another site maintained first by Armenians and now by a British Protestant group and is called appropriately, "The Garden Tomb".  Who knows if it is the right place, but at least it is not gaudy and covered with gold and incense and has an air of reverence. This is called Skull Hill and can be seen from the garden.   This is the view of the tomb coming from Skull Hill.  Things look pretty spartan in the winter.

The Garden Tomb - 2 Feb 2012

can you find Jared?

One of Jeremiah's Prisons - 2 Feb 2012

 In ancient Jerusalem water was collected in huge cisterns.  The prophet Jeremiah was held in this cistern according to legend.  It is winter and there has been a lot of rain so this cistern is nearly full.  He would have had to have been held in the summer when the water level was low.

interestingly this is less than 100 feet from the Garden tomb.  It is almost certain that Jeremiah was a type and shadow of Christ as he was held in the belly of the earth and so near to the place where the Savior of the world was laid.  

Jeremiah had to be let down and brought up by a rope, so the cistern is very deep and this hole is the only way out.

St. George's Cathedral - 2 Feb 2012

 St. George is a patron saint for the British.  It is a cathedral, school and hostel for pilgrims.  Lane and I stayed a couple of nights here on our first trip to Israel in 2000, when Lane was in Kuwait in a UN peace keeping mission for a year.  We met in Jerusalem on that trip.  This is the entry to the complex, except the school which is across the street.  To the right is the hostel.

 This is the interior.  All the seat cushions are embroidered with various cities, counties and British family names.  It was fun to wander around and see the diversity of England represented in the seat cushions

 This is the main console of the pipe organ.  There were more pipes tucked around the chapel.

 We were surprised to find this baptismal font which looks to be deep enough to do baptisms by immersion...

Nice picture of Jeremy and Jeremy taking a photo of the organ.