The Galilee and the Golan Heights

Today we set off north along the west side of the Galilee. We stopped for a few minutes at the Mount of the Beatitudes. This is hill where many believe Christ gave the sermon on the mount, although I don't honestly think anyone can know this for certain. It's a beautiful location overlooking the lake, and includes a lovely little chapel and gardens.




Then we headed north into the Golan Heights, quite near the border with Lebanon, to the Tel Dan Nature Reserve. The Dan River is the largest and the most important of the three sources of the Jordan River. The reserve contins many of the springs that feed the Dan River, as well as the remains of the ancient Canaanite city of Laish, which was captured by the tribe of Dan during the period of the Judges.






Finally, we headed south into the central Golan Heights to the Gamla Nature Reserve, which we were unable to find yesterday (one of the reception guys at our hotel explained how to find it; otherwise we never would have, as the entrance is a bit hidden on a back road). As we were traveling south along the western border with Syria at this point, we saw a lot of UN vehicles along the way, as well as many signs warning of land mines in nearby fields.

During the winter, the national parks in Israel close at 4:00 p.m., and allow the last entry at 3:00 p.m., so we unfortunately didn't have as much time here as we would have liked (we arrived right at 3:00). Gamla is located on a cliff ridge, overlooking steep ravines and, if you look carefully, the Sea of Galilee in the distance.

Apparently, dozens of pairs of huge griffon vultures nest in these ravines and can often be observed flying about below the observation point on the cliff top; however, we did not see any during our visit. It was terribly windy while we were there, so I'm not certain if even a very powerful bird would have wanted to fly then.


Remains of the ancient cit of Gamla, a propserous Jewish town during the Second Temple period, are also in the reserve.


The Gamla waterfall, Israel's highest, is also located here. we tried to hike to the waterfall, and were within site of the bridge over it, but had to turn back so as to make it out of the park before it closed.
Sunset over the Galilee.

Tiberias and the Galilee

We're staying in Tiberias, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee (or Lake Kinneret, as it's called by the locals), for a few days. It's a bit of a dreary tourist town, but a convenient base for exploring the region.

We spent most of the day driving around the lake. It's much smaller than I imagined, and quite easy to see one side from the other. It probably would have only taken a couple of hours to drive completely around it, but we stopped at several areas of interest along the way.

We visited the Kibbutz Ginnosar to check out the Sea of Galilee boat, a 2,000-year-old boat discovered in 1986 on the north-west shore of the lake when the waters receded because of a drought. A team of archaeologists worked night and day to excavate and move the boat before the waters covered it again, and then spent over a decade restoring it. It went on display in 1999.

I knew I'd heard about this boat years earlier, and realized why as we were watching a short film about the discovery. One of the two lead archaeologists who worked on the project, Shelley Wachsmann, was my professor at Texas A&M. I took a class called Archaeology in the Land of the Bible from him in the summer of 1998 - a fascinating class. He worked for Israel's Department of Antiquities and Museums for 24 years before joining A&M, so he had all sorts of interesting tidbits to share, including the inside information about restoration of the boat.


Twelve different types of wood have been identified as comprising this boat.

We both thought it was really neat to see a reference to our university half way around the world.

After viewing the boat, we drove around for a bit, stopping at various lookout points.


We drove back and forth on one highway, trying to find the Gamla Nature Reserve, but never were able to. The directions I had were incorrect and my map was unclear - very frustrating. We'll try again tomorrow.

Tel Aviv, Caesarea and Tiberias

Our flight aboard El Al arrived into Tel Aviv at about 1:00 a.m. this morning. We were blessed to make it through customs very quickly and were settled into our hotel by 2:00. Our room was very comfortable and quiet, so we fell asleep quickly. The typical Israeli breakfast - lots of salads, fresh fruit juices, whole grain breads and eggs - served by our hotel this morning was absolutely delicious, as most everything served was locally grown or produced.

After breakfast, we headed to the car rental place, where we rented a car for the week, and were off on our adventure. The roads in Israel are very nice, well-paved, clearly marked and for the most part free of too much traffic. Jerry has driven in many different countries and always seems to pick up on traffic rules and customs pretty quickly.

After about an hour or so, we found our way to Caesarea, an ancient port city that was renamed Caesarea by Herod in honor of the emperor. In 22 B.C., Herod began construction of an artificial harbor and built many public buildings.

Remains of the artificial harbor.

Old Byzantine church.

Ruins.






This picture is for my sister - it's an inside joke.

After leaving Caesarea, we headed to Tiberias, where we'll be staying for a few days. Because it's winter here, it gets dark around 5:00 p.m.; thus, we'll have to wait until tomorrow to get a good look at the Sea of Galilee. As our hotel's right on the coast, though, we can hear the sound of the waves out our window.

Final Day in Cairo

Although we are to fly to Tel Aviv this evening, as our flight is at 11:30 p.m., we had nearly the entire day in Cairo. We spent much of it at the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in Cairo, which we were able to walk to from our hotel. The museum is full of fascinating artifacts, including most of those found in the tomb of the boy king, Tutankhamun. Unfortunately, as no photos are allowed inside of the museum, I don't have any to show. But I did purchase a book with photos of many of the items, so at least I'll have something to remember them by.

Tonight we fly to Tel Aviv to start the second leg of our vacation - our journey through Israel.

Memphis, Saqqara and Giza

Today Jerry and I took a private, full-day tour to Memphis, Saqqara and Giza.

Memphis is a little over 10 miles south of Cairo on the west bank of the Nile. It served as the capital of ancient Egypt off and on from about 3100 BC to around 300 BC. It's now an open-air museum, with a number of statues and a few ruins of a temple, but not much else. Honestly, it was a bit underwhelming after all the amazing things we'd already seen in upper Egypt.

Statue of Ramesses II, left as it was found, on its back.

Yet another statue of Ramesses II.

Alabaster sphinx.


Saqqara is a vast, ancient burial ground not far from Memphis. The most famous landmark here s the step pyramid, built by Imhotep, the famous architect, physician and engineer for his king, Djoser, in approximately 2600 BC. He was one of the very few commoners ever to be awarded divine status following his death - he became the god of medicine and healing. We were unfortunately not able to see the inside of this pyramid, as it is undergoing several years' worth of renovations.

To give an idea of scale, this pyramid is about 60 meters high, just a bit shorter than the smallest of the three major pyramids at Giza. If you enlarge it, you can see some people who appear very small at the right-hand side of the pyramid's base.


From Saqqara, you can see the Giza pyramids, where we headed next, in the distance.


Finally, we headed to Giza to see some of the most famous landmarks of Egypt - the pyramids and the sphinx. Giza is actually a large city just southwest of Cairo, on the west bank of the Nile. The Giza Plateau is home to a great complex of ancient Egyptian mortuary and other sacred strutures, including the Great Pyramid and the Great Sphinx.

The largest pyramid at Giza is actually the one to the left; this is the Great Pyramid of the pharoah Khufu (or Cheops, as he was called by the Greeks). It is about 147 meters high. The pyramid in the middle belongs to Khafra, Khufu's son (or grandson, depending on who you believe); it is about 143 meters high. To the right is the pyramid of menkaure, the son of either Khufu or Khafra; it is about 66 meters high, which is just slightly higher than the step pyramid at Saqqara.

Situated around these great pyramids are smaller pyramids for the pharoahs' wives, children and other nobles. I crawled down into the burial shaft of one of these - the pyramid Khufu built for his mother. That's it in the center of this picture (no, I did not ride the camel).

The Great Pyramid of the pharaoh Khufu.

The Great Sphinx, thought to have been built by Khafra. It actually looks a bit smaller in person than I'd imagined, but maybe that's only because it's dwarfed by the enormous scale of the pyramids.


Sunset at Giza.

Cairo

This afternoon, we flew from Luxor to Cairo. I found the topography so interesting to observe from the air. The area around Luxor seems to be mostly stone mountains and cliffs; the sand flows like rivers through the valleys, making interesting patterns on the ground. This isn't a very good picture (taken out my airplane window), but at least it gives you an idea of what I'm talking about.

Toward Cairo, the landscape changed a bit and seemed to consist more of sand dunes.

Here are a few views of Cairo and the Nile from our hotel balcony.


Night view.