The last day of the Israel portion of the tour I took in 2010 to Israel & Jordan was spent taking our time to return to Tel Aviv by visiting some additional interesting locations. The first one was Latrun (Latroun), which is on a hilltop in the Valley of Ayalon, where Joshua commanded the sun to be still so they could complete the battle against the Amorites before dark. Samson was also born in the area. Our visit was to the 1890 Trappist Monastery, set in a beautiful garden.
I would have loved to have purchased a bottle of the wine they produce at the monastery, but I was going to be picked up at 4:30am the next day to catch the flight to Jordan. No time to drink it all and couldn’t take it on the plane. Too bad we didn’t stop off there when we started the trip.
Our next stop was Emmaus. We visited the remains of a 2nd
century basilica that had been built on what was assumed to be the site where
Jesus manifested himself to a couple of the disciples after He arose following
the crucifixion. This basilica was rebuilt first by the Byzantines and later by
the Crusaders. Near the basilica are a few 1st century tombs. It was
great to see one “in the wild”.
The Valley of Elah was where the story of David and Goliath took place. Tol pointed out the one hill where the Israelites were hanging out and the other hill where the Phillistines were encamped. Not much imagination was needed here as the two hills and the area between them didn’t seem to be much altered. Tol then described how Goliath came down from the hill to our right and challenged the Israelites. David then came down from the hill to our left to face him.
A couple of posts ago, I described how I tripped and fell at David’s tomb, smacked against the gate separating the women’s section from the tomb itself and the dollar bill in my hand flew into the tomb area, landing in front of the sarcophagus. Tol had been teasing me about it for the remainder of the trip. So, when he described David facing Goliath and asked what we might say to David at that moment, I responded, “you owe me a dollar.” It was a laugh that was well worth the two-day wait.
We went into Tel Aviv for lunch and then back-tracked to
Jaffa for some sightseeing in Old Jaffa. Archeological evidence shows that
Jaffa has been in existence at least as far back as 7500 BC. Whenever anything
is excavated, they find evidence of nearly every period of history all mixed
together. I really enjoyed Jaffa with its narrow cobbled streets and thousands
of years of history.
When we got to Tel Aviv, those of us who were headed to Jordan (16 out of 26), would have preferred to dine fairly early to get some rest before our flight to Amman. Since we weren’t dining until 8:00pm, I got everything ready to go so I didn’t have much to do when I returned to my room. It was a farewell dinner for everyone who was leaving the tour that night, but the group going to Jordan all bailed a little past 9:00pm.
Next time – arriving bleary-eyed but excited for new adventures in Jordan.
At the Israel Museum, we visited a large “to scale” replica
of Jerusalem in the Second Temple period. It represents what Jerusalem looked
like before it was destroyed in 66 AD by the Romans. I thought it was really
cool. It was designed by a historian in the 1960s, based on the writings of the
Roman historian Flavius Josephus and other sources from the 1st
century. The version of the Temple is the one constructed by Herod.
Next to this model is the Shrine of the Book, which contains
the collection of the Dead Sea Scrolls held in Israel (there are others in
Amman, Jordan). They rotate which scrolls are on display, so that they can keep
them safe, as they are quite fragile.
Our next visit was to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum. The
initial part of the museum we came to was a series of memorials consisting of
trees planted and dedicated to people who had saved Jews from the Nazis during
World War II. These included memorials to Raoul Wallenberg, Irena Sendler, Oskar
Schindler, Corrie ten Boom, Princess Alice of Battenberg, the People of
Denmark, and King Christian X of Denmark. This is called the Garden of the
Righteous among the Nations.
The Children’s Memorial was breathtaking. It consisted of a single candle reflected 1.5 million times to represent the children who lost their lives during the Holocaust. It was difficult to get a decent photo, but I explored the different angles and waited until I was alone.
I visited several exhibits in the galleries of the Holocaust History Museum as well as the Hall of Names. Another outdoor memorial was to the people who had been deported from their homes to distant concentration camps by train.
After lunch, we returned to the Dung Gate in Old Jerusalem where we entered and headed for the Davidson Center Archeological dig. This was along part of the Western Wall and the Southern Wall of Temple Mount at the time (2010). It may have expanded since then. The first area was near the southwest corner which contains the remnants of a 1st century street, the traces of Robinson’s Arch (a massive bridge up to the mount), and a reproduction of a block that fell from the wall above and is engraved with a message saying it was where the trumpeter stood to announce the beginning or end of the Sabbath.
There have been some scholars who believe that the Temple Mount was not really where the Temple was. They say it was located in the part of Jerusalem known as the City of David and that the Temple Mount was really just the Antonia Fortress. Sorry, I don’t buy it. I subscribe to both Biblical Archeology Review and Archeology Magazine (is it obvious I love Archeology?) as well as having studied some of the history (yeah, I really like history too) and I think they have the right place. Besides which, why would the trumpeter stand at a corner of the Antonia Fortress to announce the beginning and end of Sabbath?
I have heard rumors that non-Muslims have been allowed up on
the Temple Mount from time to time. But this was one of those times when they
weren’t. So we just kept touching the wall surrounding the Temple Mount and
exploring the excavations that had been done up to that point.
Along the Southern Wall was a 1st century toilet
of the public variety. It seemed to be very public as Tol did not indicate that
there had ever been any type of enclosure around it. Further along the Southern
Wall was a crusader structure. There were some steps added to allow us to climb
through part of it to get to the other side where we could see the outlines of
former gates and stand on the steps associated with those gates.
Back during what was known as the Baron’s Crusade (1234 – 1241), which was led by Richard of Cornwall (a son of King John of England), one of those knight ancestors of mine, Sir Hugh Wake (a 23rd great grandfather), landed at Akko (Acre) and proceeded to Ascalon (Ashkelon) where he was involved in rebuilding the Crusader fortress there. Not too many years ago his Coat of Arms was found carved in a piece of stone in the moat near the northern Jaffa gate of Ascalon. I bring this up as he was killed December 18, 1241 in battle in Jerusalem. I don’t have a clue as to where, but could it have been somewhere near the Temple Mount? Maybe near that Crusader fortress?
Because we had been unable to take photos the day before,
Tol took us back to the Wailing Wall just for a photo op. Several soldiers were
there, armed. So I got a photo of them as well as of the wall.
On our way to our hotel, Tol pointed out Oskar Schindler’s
grave. I managed a rather lop-sided photo of the entrance to the grave, which I
have included here.
We had one more day in Israel before flying to Amman, Jordan. So, next time will be our visits to Latrun (Latroun), Emmaus, the Valley of Elah, and Jaffa as we returned to Tel Aviv.
We entered the walls of Old Jerusalem through the Dung Gate.
Not sure how it got its name, but the gate was built in the 16th
century. In the 20th century it was enlarged to allow vehicular
traffic. The plaza for the western wall is a short distance inside of the gate.
We were visiting the portion of the western wall known as the Wailing Wall. It
was the Sabbath, however, so no photography was allowed. We also needed to
write down any prayers on slips of paper in advance. Men and women were in
separate sections.
One of the other women in my group and I walked over to the wall and placed our hands on it while praying. We both swore afterwards that we could feel a vibration coming from the wall. We asked a few others if they felt it, but they said they didn’t. Tol said that he has had others say they have experienced the same thing. Usually just a few within the group.
We walked from there up El Wad Road to the Third Station of
the Cross. We were unable to gain entry to where the first two stations were
located, so we started with #3. Although I did take photos at each station,
there really wasn’t much there other than a disc marking the location. Can’t
say that they make for fascinating photography, but I have included one of them
here with the Via Dolorosa street sign. The Ninth Station is just outside of
the Church of the Holy Sepulchre with stations 10 through 14 inside of the
church.
As we progressed through the stations, we seemed to pick up
a few more people here and there along the way. By the time we reached the
church, we had a pretty good crowd. Inside of the church, it was once again
supremely crowded. After Bethlehem, I was prepared for that and knew I needed
to concentrate on what I was doing in order to keep safe. I don’t recommend
this for children. As a short adult, it was very easy to get shoved around.
Staying on my feet and being able to breathe when sandwiched between two much
larger people were my goals. For the most part, people were fairly respectful
of where we were. But then there were those who definitely were not. These were
the ones doing most of the pushing and shoving as opposed to just quietly
waiting their turn as the crowd inched along.
As we climbed up towards the summit of what is believed to
be Golgotha, we could see the actual rock through the glass, including the
split, which took place at the moment of Jesus’ death. Despite the reflection,
I did get a photo. At the top was another star that we needed to crawl to and
place our hand inside. After that point, the crowd eased up a bit until the
tomb. Then it became crushing again.
A project to refurbish the tomb took place a few years after my visit in 2010. During that refurbishment, the archeologists involved found that there was a second marble slab beneath the one that had been visible since about the 1100s. The mortar for this slab was dated to the 4th century. Beneath it was the original limestone slab upon which the body would have been laid out. This slab and the remnants of the rock-hewn cave around it (which remains enclosed within the shrine, but with the top sheared off) were dated to the 1st century. So this means that the dates are correct. It seems that Hadrian built a pagan shrine over this too, which was there when Constantine’s mom, Helen, arrived to try to find it. The location of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was outside of the city in the 1st century.
After leaving the church, we walked through the Jewish
Quarter to the Armenian Quarter. Then we went through the Zion Gate to Mount
Zion where we visited the Upper Room. Unfortunately this location has been
found to not be old enough (12th century) to have existed at the
time of the Last Supper. However, it is likely near the original site and it is
above what is considered to be King David’s Tomb (although it is hotly debated
by some as to whether the tomb is here or in Bethlehem).
I have always liked David. He made a lot of mistakes and was far from perfect, yet he loved God and God loved him. I was really looking forward to seeing the tomb. But, there were separate sections for men and women. The men could view the tomb head on, while the women were to the side of the tomb and gated off from it. I wanted to get as close to the gate as I could and didn’t notice the step just in front of the gate. I fell off the step and smacked into the gate, bruising my hand. I had a dollar bill in that hand to buy a bottle of water when we returned to our coach, which shot from my hand and landed on the floor just in front of the sarcophagus.
Once Tol determined that I hadn’t seriously injured myself, he began to tease me about it. For the rest of the time we were in Israel, whenever the subject of David came up, he would say something like, “Trisha tried to join David in the tomb,” or “when David wakes up (when the Messiah comes), he’ll have a dollar for a bottle of water,” or “now other tourists will think you’re supposed to toss money into the tomb.”
Because of the Sabbath, we had lunch at a kibbutz just
outside of Jerusalem. Then we visited the Mount of Olives to get a panoramic view
of the city. There was a camel hanging out there who was relatively friendly. I
did not try to pet him, however. Although I was tempted, I restrained myself.
We could look across the Kidron Valley and see where David’s son, Absalom’s
tomb was located.
When we came down from the Mount of Olives, we visited the Garden of Gethsemane. I was glad to see that part of it was still a garden with olive trees. Some of the trees were really old too, which added to the atmosphere. Inside of the church is what is called the “Rock of the Agony”. This is the rock upon which it is believed that Jesus prayed on the night of His betrayal.
The House of Caiaphas is an ongoing archeological dig that
is located partially under the Church of St Peter in Gallicantu, which was
built where Peter denied Jesus three times. The House of Caiaphas was where
Jesus was imprisoned before standing trial. We were able to go down into the
dungeon and to the cell where Jesus was reportedly held. We were also able to
walk on some 1st century steps outside of the house where Jesus most
likely walked when he was brought there and taken away later.
The rocky plateau near the Dead Sea known as Masada was initially fortified by King Herod in 37 to 31 BC. He built two palaces there, parts of which can still be seen. In 70 AD, after the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, several members of a Jewish sect called the Sicarii joined a settlement that had begun roughly four years earlier at the top of the plateau.
In roughly 73 AD, Lucius Flavia Silva, the Roman Governor of Judea, launched a siege against the Sicarii at Masada. Jewish prisoners of war were used by the Romans to build a siege ramp to allow the Romans access to the fortress. Because the Sicarii did not want to kill their Jewish brothers who were building the ramp, they did not stop them. Once the ramp was completed, a siege tower was pulled up the ramp and a battering ram and fire were used to breach the wall.
This was when the decision was made not to be captured and enslaved by the Romans. Suicide is very much against Jewish religious beliefs. All of the men were to kill their own families, while ten men were selected to kill all of the other men. Those ten men drew lots as to who would be the last man standing. He would then need to kill himself. Archeologists have discovered what they believe are the lots within the synagogue. Roughly 960 people ended up being killed. The story is known because two women and their children hid in one of the cisterns and survived.
Upon arriving at the visitor center for the site, we watched
a short film before taking the cable car to the top. It is possible to take the
Snake Path up instead, which was the path that the Sicarii used. Or one can go
around to the other side of the mountain and walk up the siege ramp. I chose
the cable car. I wanted to spend as much time as possible actually on the
plateau as opposed to getting there. Otherwise, I might have tried the Snake
Path.
At the end of the film, the narrator said, “We invite you to
climb the mountain.” That got to me. I had watched a TV movie about Masada as a
child and have long been fascinated by the story. On the way up, I stood at the
front of the cable car with my video camera in hand filming. At the top, the
presence of Masada’s prior residents was palpable. I was in awe.
Some parts have been restored and some have been left as
they were found. I walked around, took photos and videos, and looked at
everything. I stood and stared at the Upper and Lower Palace, the Synagogue,
the cisterns, the Roman Army camps, the Bath House, and the ramp, as well as
the remains of all of the other buildings.
It was possible to explore much of the remains of the Upper and Lower Palace. They had steps between the levels so getting up and down wasn’t too difficult. The Synagogue still had some of its walls as well as seating. The cisterns were in pretty good shape in addition to a couple of pools. The Bath House had enough of it remaining that I could get a good idea of what it was like when it was in use. Some of the paint was still on the walls. But the parts I found absolutely chilling were the remains of the Roman Army camps down below (roughly 10,000 troops compared to less than a thousand Sicarii) and the ramp. Looking over the wall and down the ramp was memorable and the pile of rocks that were not used against the builders of the ramp was poignant.
Sitting on the rock pile was a bird called a Tristran’s Raven, which is found only in the Dead Sea area and is quite prevalent at Masada. Another unique animal in the Dead Sea area is an Ibex (sort of like an antelope). We encountered several of them in Ein Gedi, where we had lunch. Ein Gedi was where David went to hide from King Saul in order to escape his wrath.
On the way to Masada, we had passed by Qumran, where many of the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. But not all of the scrolls were discovered at Qumran. They were found all over the Dead Sea area, including in a small room in the synagogue at Masada.
After lunch, we went to a private beach and waded into the Dead Sea. The water felt very slimy to me. Although I could get it washed off of me pretty well, I thought my suit would never recover.
A few years back, I saw an episode of the television series “Ghost Hunters” in which they were investigating Masada. They captured a very haunting image of what appeared to be a lone, robe-clothed man next to one of the small buildings that had been there at the time and is still intact. Could he have been the “last man standing”?
Qumran
Cable car to the top of Masada
Masada
More of Masada
Still more of the excavations
Roman Army Camp
The Upper Palace
Looking down at the Lower Palace
The Lower Palace
The Lower Palace from the side
Part of the Bath House
A cistern
At the Synagogue
The siege ramp looking down from the breach in the wall
A Tristran’s Raven on the pile of stones that wasn’t used
