Our first stop was to look out over the Rift Valley toward Adam. This city sits right in the middle of the Rift Valley. It was therefore used as a connector between the Cisjordan and Transjordan sections of Samaria. People could come down the Faria Valley to Adam and then travel north a little ways to the valley that leads to Penuel. Penuel was the Transjordan capital of the Northern Kingdom (along with Shechem on the Cisjordan side) in the time of Jeroboam.
From here we travelled to our first major stop at the tell of Beth Shean. There are two parts to this site because it was used both during the Old Testament and New Testament time periods. In the New Testament it was one of the Decapolis cities called Scythopolis. I spent most of my time walking around Scythopolis because the remains were spectacular.
The Cardo (or main north-south road through the city) has a walkway on ether side, which apparently at Scythopolis is covered in mosaics. From the top of tell-Beth Shean I was able to get some really nice photos of this road. Scythopolis also has a large theater and an impressive bath house. Scythopolis also boasts an innovative public toilet area. No longer will a simple hole in the ground do, but now a seat is available for your bathroom needs. This was definitely an advanced city for its time.
Our next stop was at Mount Gilboa. We were able to look over the Herod Valley to the Hills of Moreh. Also, we had a view of the southeast side of the Jezreel Valley. It was hazy, so our view was not as good as it could have been, but still impressive.
We also discussed Judges 6 about Gideon and his victory over the Midianites. Apparently, the Midianites were "hard-core Bedouins" who would attack cities to get food and supplies and then destroy everything else. So when we meet Gideon he is down in a wine press threshing his grain, as opposed to a threshing floor which would be out in the open. He was obviously hiding his produce from the Midianites. From this place of hiding God comes and tells Gideon that he is a valiant warrior who is going to gain the victory over the Midianites. Gideon basically says, "Who, me?", and as you may know God says "yes" and proves to Gideon and the Israelites that when God is fighting for you victory is inevitable.
Our last stop was at Zippori, which is the home town of Hannah the cousin of Mary and the mother of John the Baptist. There are some very beautiful mosaics still relatively intact found on this site. First, we went to a synagogue that had a basic history Israel and the temple laid out in the mosaic. The interesting part of this mosaic was the large zodiac calendar in the center. It even named the zodiac signs in Hebrew. This would either mean that the Jews were mixing pagan ideas in with their own, or that the zodiac calendar was just a way to show the months of the year without having further meaning to them. One cannot really know for sure either way. At this site is also a mosaic with what is known as the "Mona Lisa of Israel". It is a beautiful portrait of a woman in one small section of a larger mosaic. She has the Mona Lisa half smile, which gives her the name. I was able to get a nice picture of her as well.
From here we came to out rest at a hostel in En Gev, right on the Sea of Galilee. This was a really nice hostel with basically little apartment sized buildings that could house four or five people. Though, dinner was moved to 7:45pm (which is late for us), we still were able to settle in and do some needed television watching. Hooray for English channels!
~~~~Love you all and sorry for not posting in a long time~~~~
Jennilee
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