Israel: Part III--Megiddo

Keeping in mind that Israel can fit inside the state of Utah six times, it's small. The Jezreel Valley (pictured previously) is the largest valley in Israel and the most famous battlefield in the world, and it's small. The major trade routes between Africa and Asia crossed in this valley, making it a strategic location for empires throughout history. The Egyptians, Hittites, Israelites, Philistines, Assyrians, Syrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Crusaders, Turks, and British have all fought battles in this valley. Our guide, Carol Ann, pointed at the location on the map, and you can see all roads come together at that point.

The city of Megiddo was located on the southern edge of the Jezreel Valley, guarding the famous Megiddo pass. With control of this fortified city, a ruler controlled the commercial and military traffic throughout the region. After conquering the city, Pharoah Tutmose III stated that the "capturing of Megiddo is the capturing of a thousand cities." In fact, at the Karnak Temple in Luxor, there is a cartouche symbol carved on the wall with the name of Megiddo in it, marking its capture by Tutmose III.

During excavation of Megiddo, the remains of 22 different cities were uncovered--each built upon the ruins of the preceding one, demonstrating the turbulent history of the city. Megiddo's water supply was provided by a shaft 120 feet deep, which connected with a hidden spring outside the city walls. Thus the city could survive under siege for a long time because they still had water. The same system was built at Masada and in the old City of David, which we know as Hezekiah's tunnel. The term Armageddon means "Mountain of Megiddo," and it is believed by some scholars that this is the place where the armies of 250 million soldiers gather for the great battle before the second coming of the Lord. (Revelation 16:13-16; Ezekiel 38-39; Zechariah 14:2-3) The valley is small, and it's hard to imagine 250 million soldiers fitting in it.

Israel: Part II--Mount Carmel

On our way to the Sea of Galilee, we stopped at a couple places, the first was Mount Carmel, at the place where Elijah challenged the priests of Baal in the Old Testament. There is a monastery there, and we could see down into the Jezreel Valley from the top. Right now everything is green and gorgeous. Most of the farming occurs in that valley, and some of the valley never drains from the rainy season, so the Israelis have built reservoirs for fish farms.

We drove by a tomb with a round stone to cover the opening, much like would have been used in Jesus' day. It was discovered when the road was built. Dumb tourists we were, trying to cross the road when traffic comes whipping by at 50+ mph! We got honked at more than once! The inside of the tomb had places to lay the bodies, and was really interesting, mostly because at the Garden Tomb, the round stone is missing. A stone is on display there to give you an idea of what it would have looked like, but it's not original.

My Bike

My bike and I haven't spent much time together lately, and now my riding partner is out of town, so it will probably be a couple more weeks before we get out again. Here's my bike. It's not fancy, but I love it!

The Green Lizards...

had a great time at practice and then at their first game today. The beauty of coach pitch baseball is that everyone gets a chance to hit, and no score is kept. The kids get to learn how the game works in a very safe, encouraging environment. Now there are those that would disagree, and feel that competition is good, everyone has to learn how to lose sometime, and so on. But I think this a great experience for Hannah right now to try something new without any pressure. Which is good, because she doesn't always pay attention to what is going on around her.

Israel: Part I--Caesarea

Caesarea was our first stop when we got back into Israel. It's now a small, expensive, rich community right on the Mediterranean coastline, with the only golf course in Israel. (So our guide told us.) We had an Israeli guide, named Carol Ann, and a Palestinian bus driver, named Adel. They were both excellent, and a great addition to our group.

Caesarea was a coastal port town built by Herod the Great, or Herod the Builder, as the Israelis call him. All that's left of the city and palace are some ruins right on the coast, with a large theater that is still used in the summer for theatrical and musical performances. Some of the aquaducts are still standing as well, which were brilliantly designed to bring water from the source at the base of Mount Carmel, eight miles away, to the city at the coast. Our group, ever the faithful LDS, also spotted a guy stuck in the sand and asked the bus driver to stop so they could help.

Here are some pictures of Caesarea, which the Israelis have made into a national park. They have done that with most of the sites we visited, which means there is an entrance fee, as well as informational signs and a gift shop. While we were in the theater, I was in love with the Mediterranean Sea, and had to take pictures of the sailboats. At that point, we were unsure if we would ever have time to go swimming, and I seriously longed to get in the water. (By the way, we didn't get to swim in the sea, which annoyed me to no end.) The theater was filled with Nigerian tourists. When we got off the plane in Tel Aviv, there were about 10 tour buses full of them--their government pays for them to come to Israel on a pilgrimage once in their lifetime, including spending money and all their luggage. We ran into them all over the country. They were friendly and kind, and liked to sing at every site, which occasionally overpowered our tour director and his lectures.

Scriptural and historical significance: When Paul was brought before King Agrippa (who was the son of Herod the Great), it was in Caesarea. As I mentioned, Caesarea was a port city, and the engineering used was advanced for the time. Underwater cement columns were constructed to build the harbor for the ships to come and go.

Error Correction

John has informed me that the information about the tops of the pyramids in my last post is incorrect. The outside stone, which was limestone, was removed by some conquering peoples to build their homes. That's why there is still smooth stone at the top. And it also explains all the rock rubble around the bases of the pyramids.

The editor regrets this mistake.

Pyramids

We have now officially been to one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. I never thought that we would see these famous structures in person. They were awesome and huge! It's the only "ancient wonder" still in existence, so I guess we won't be seeing any more.

Our group was the first one there, so we got to wander around and take pictures before it got too busy or hot. The tops of the pyramids still show how they were originally smooth, but the outer sandstone has eroded and now the individual square stones are visible. The amazing thing about the pyramids is that they were built by the people of Egypt, who were paid to do the job. They worked in the flood season when they couldn't work in the fields. At that time, the Nile was expanded to where the pyramids are, so the stones could be floated down and then put in place. It took 100,000 people over 20 years to complete. The pyramids are 4500 years old.

The boat was discovered buried next to the largest pyramid. It's called "Cheops" and was found in a pit, completely disassembled. Archeologists reconstructed it and then a museum was built around it. Built out of Lebanese wood, it's 4500 years old, and 146 feet long. It's purpose was to take the king to the afterlife, which is why it was buried next to his pyramid (tomb). Of course, he would have to reassemble it in the afterlife to take his trip down the river. I don't know how he would have done that!

The camels are only for tourists. We never saw anyone using them for real transportation, and our camel driver lives in Cairo and comes to the pyramids to earn money. Apparently, really poor people eat camel meat, because it's cheap. But our Egyptian guide said it's very tough and implied that it was tacky to eat it.

Sphinx is a Greek word meaning "combination," a combination of a king's head with the body of a lion. This is the first Sphinx constructed in Egypt. You can see how busy it was. And half of those people are Egyptians selling souvenirs. The Sphinx is next to the funerary temple for the king. It was built for the mummification process and then the "opening of the mouth" ceremony. That entire structure was built for only one king and used for a total of 72 days. All of the statues and things have been removed, so what's remaining is just the walls of the place.

My Favorite Things...

Cycling and good friends!

John's attempt at artsy photography...

Flowers in Israel

Egyptian Market

We rode in a carriage around Luxor and went through the markets, where they just lay their wares out right on the street. You can see vegetables, spices, bags of wool and cotton, and racks of belts and other clothing. Here are a few photos. The men wear galabyas. That's the dress-looking thing that's made out of linen. A guy in our group actually bought two, and was measured by a tailor for them!

Some of the school kids wear their uniforms with jeans and tennis shoes underneath. Most (but not all) of the girls wear a scarf on their heads to cover their hair, even if they are wearing modern clothing. It's a Muslim thing.

When I waved and smiled at the kids, they would just mob me. They were so cute, and wanted to pose in my pictures.

Sailing on the Nile

Falucca on the Nile River

Our First Mate

Dancing with the Captain

Luxor Temple from the Nile

East Bank of the Nile--Valley of the Kings

Sunset on the Nile River

Me, completely at ease on a sailboat

Luxor: Karnak Temple

I'm trying to get a slideshow going so I can post more photos at a time, but our camera takes such large files, I'm having a hard time with the technical details. In the meantime, I'll just post a few as will fit.

Some of these pictures are silly--I'd finally gotten enough sleep on this trip to feel like myself, and I made a friend named Sheila. She is about my height, about my age, and funny. So we hammed for the camera a little. I got a card from her today, and I am grateful she was in some of our pictures. She is a fabulous travel companion! As were the rest of the people in our group.

Posing like a statue of a pharoah...
"Papyrus flower with open capital..."

Karnak and Luxor temples are about 2 1/2 miles apart, and at one time had an avenue connecting them that was lined with sphinxes on both sides. The Karnak Temple complex was built to the god Amun, and covers 247 acres. Huge, built of stone, elaborately carved with some of the original color still showing, it is truly an engineering feat. I can't imagine how many people it took to build such a structure. The tops of the columns (Papyrus flower with open capital) are large enough for 100 people to stand on. Construction began during Ramesses I's reign. He was the king who founded the Nineteenth Dynasty and was king for only one year. The work continued under Seti I (1306-1296 BC). The hall was completed by Seti I's son, Ramesses II. After Ramesses, the next pharoahs (one was a woman named Hatshepsut) continued to add on for the next 1300 years, constructing their own statues and obelisks and carving out the previous guys' faces and names. An earthquake in 70 BC destroyed it.

These photos show the top of one of the columns that is big enough to hold 100 people. Also note the color on both sides in the paintings that is still original--3500 years old! Next to it is an example of the name of a king being "erased" or chiseled out by the successor. They just took out his whole body, which was the offensive part of the depiction. On the right is the last remaining obelisk from Queen Hapshetsut. Her son, after her death, built a wall around her offensive obelisk to block it from view.

We spent a couple of hours at Karnak with our Egyptian guide, Rafaat (pronounced Ray-faht). He was a sweet man that has been doing LDS and BYU tours for years. I listened to some of the other guides there with other groups, and we really had the best one. His knowledge was incredible, and he would even get down in the sand and draw pictures to illustrate his points.