Mt. Carmel, Megiddo and Nazareth

Monday, December 19, 2011 (cont.)

Statue of Elijah on the top of Mt. Carmel

After we left Caesarea, we went to Mt. Carmel.  It was windy and cold on the top, so we went in the church to read the story of Elijah and the priests of Baal.  This is one of our kids' favorite bible stories, so we were really looking forward to coming here. 

View from the top of Mt. Carmel

Next we traveled to Magiddo.  This is a mountain, or "tel" that is built up layer upon layer of civilations.  Our tour guide, Tamir, used hats on top of Kate to demonstrate how the civilations built another city on top of the previous ones.  As a result, the archeology goes back thousands of years and they have discovered over 25 civilations. 

Megiddo was important because of its location at a crossroads for international trade routes, good fertile land, and access to water.  The earliest recorded battle occured here between a pharoah's army from Egypt and some Assyrians.  Megiddo  has also been translated as Armageddon and will be where the final battles take place.  We saw city gates belonging to King Solomon and King Ahab.  City gates were important for not only protection, but for market places and the exchange of information and news coming from the trade routes.

City gates from King Ahab

Megiddo overlooks the beautiful Jezreal Valley.  It is sad to imagine the bloodshed that has taken place here and the things that will yet happen here.



View of Jezreal Valley from Megiddo



They have discovered horse corrals they think belonged to King Solomon, but could have possibly been King Ahab's.



A beautiful date palm with dates

We also got to explore the underground water system.  We walked down 187 metal steps into a 36-meter deep shaft, then entered a 70-meter long tunnel which extended to a spring.  We then climbed 77 steps up on the other side.  This shaft was built to allow access to the water from the spring to the inhabitants of the city even if they were under siege.   

Our last stop for the day was Nazareth.  Nazareth was quite a big city--one of the largest in Israel--with lots of markets and even modern malls.  We stopped at the Church of the Annunciation.

Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth

Inside is a grotto or cave where they think Mary lived as was visited by the angel Gabriel telling her that she would be the mother of Jesus.

Inside the Church of the Annunciation

Outside we could see further archeology digs.  This is the grotto of Mary's house from the outside, and probably where Jesus came to live. 

 The streets were narrow and hilly.  There were a few Christmas decorations here in Nazareth.

Streets of Nazareth

We left Nazareth and drove a short distance to our hotel in Tiberius, on the shores of the Sea of Gallilee.  It was beautiful.  We stayed in a fabulous hotel right on the sea.  We had a lovely view of the water from our balcony.  After a big buffet dinner, we went out on the large decks outside the restaurant and watched a laser show over the water. 

I also did laundry that night.  I had hoped to find a laundrymat, but there wasn't one available.  Laundry service at the hotel was super expensive (like $10 per item) so I washed some clothes out in the bathtub with the laundry soap I had packed.  It took forever, and it seemed a little crazy to be doing laundry by hand in this amazing 5-star hotel, but...we needed clean clothes!  And I wasn't about to pay $10 for each of William's little shirts to be washed.