Israel - Day 12

Today was our first of six days in the Northern (Galilee) region. We visited one of the most fascinating cities today--Caesarea. This city was built by Herod the Great. He wanted to build a city that would be very Rome-esque in Israel. He also wanted it to be a safe haven for boats coming from Rome to Israel. So, he built a harbor!!! The workers actually used some form of cement that hardens under water and they built a harbor that could protect boats. This city also has a first century hippodrome (where the chariot races take place in Ben Hur) and first century theatre.

After that, we took two scenic overlooks of the Jezreel Valley. This was a neat site in a very special way. One often comes to Israel to be able to walk on a stone that we can know Jesus walked on. The Jezreel Valley is neat in a different way. At the base of Mt. Megiddo, this was not only an important site in history, but we know it will be an even more important site in the future. The word for mount or mountain in Hebrew is "har." Therefore, they would call Mt. Megiddo Harmegiddo. But, translated into Greek (which does not have an "h"), one gets Armegeddon. That's right, the Jezreel Valley sits at the base of Mt. Megiddo where the battle of Armageddon will take place. It was cool to look down on this valley and see not what happened in the past, but what will happen in the future. As a side note, Napoleon said that all the armies of the world could fight in the Jezreel Valley.

Tonight we are staying in Nazareth. We only have about 6 nights left in Israel of our 20 or so. It took until tonight for us to get a queen sized bed. Each of the other places we've stayed have two twin sized beds that you can either put together if you're a couple, or put a night stand in between if you're not. Tonight we finally got a queen bed. The next three nights we're supposed to be staying at the En Gev RESORT (ah, what a wonderful word) on the Sea of Galilee. Supposedly we'll be able to walk out of the resort and walk right into the Sea of Galilee. We're looking forward to the nice resort, but we understand we have to pay through the nose to get Wi-fi there. Hopefully that won't affect the blogging too much!