Monday, October 18, 2010

Day 3

Day 3-Sunday

Today was a day spent mostly in Christian sites, and driving into the North part of Isreal. We met our tour guide at 8:30 after eating a delicious breakfast, and headed out.
Most of the stories we heard today I have heard before, as most of them came from the Bible. However, our tour guide was very explanatory of many different things.

Once the Jew survived the camps, ghettos, and the plagues that followed and surrounded WWII they tried to start new in their own land. The British, however, didn’t want this to happen, and gave powerful positions and money to the Arab people. They didn’t thing the Jewish people could ever be something bigger. In Khron Ya’Aqov the Jewish people living there could see out to sea and were able to signal the ships carrying Jewish refugees as to whether or not it was safe for them to land in port. When we drove through this city today, it felt very European.

Another time period we learned about was during the time of Herod, who built Massada, and also the more Roman Caesarea. This was a very Roman fortress, and included an amphitheatre as well as Roman arenas. Herod employed some of the greatest engineers to build a safer place to live. They filled wooden beams with volcanic ash that, when in contact with water, immediately becomes cement. He used this to build a wall in the water around Caesarea. A problem here was also fresh drinking water, so he built about 40miles of canals on top of pillars at exact angles so that the fresh water would flow right into the city. They also were very smart about making their gates hard to penetrate. The doorways were very narrow, and often had a right turn. The reason for this was that people carried swords in their right hand, and their shields in their left. When they turned right, it left them more exposed. The doors and entrance ramps were narrow so that fewer soldiers could enter at one time.

During the time of the Crusades, priests told Europeans to save the holy land, and take it from the Arabs. Only one third of the soldiers managed to get in Jerusalem. Even though they were here to conquer the holy land, they often fought amongst each other. Once the threat from Salam because more serious, they banded together to stop him. Salam conquered Tibera, and the king of that area came to the crusaders and said that his wife was in the palace, but Salam was too strong, it was not worth it to attack Salam. This Arab king put his tent on top of a hill on one side of the valley in order to have the best fighting spot. Raneau, a French commander enjoyed fighting and stirring up trouble. He decided, and managed to convince the Crusaders, that they should attack Salam. They started marching at around 1am since it took so long for them to dress. They walked through the wheat field towards the mountain that Salam was on. Salam ordered all the fields to be burned, and won this fight without letting loose a single arrow, or using any swords. They brought the leaders of the Crusader’s army up to Salam’s tent, where this French guy thought he would help himself to something to drink. In Arab tradition, if someone drinks in your house, they are your guest, and you can do nothing to harm them. So Salam cut off his hand, and wouldn’t let him drink, then becoming angry with the rest of the commanders, and ended up conquering Jerusalem. Because of this one man, so many people lost their lives. This type of tradition is also common among the Beduins, who believe that a person can live with you three days without saying anything, before you are given permission to demand to know why they are in their house.

We went for lunch in St. Peters, before visiting the place where Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount, as well as where they believed Jesus appointed Peter as ‘Rock of His church’, and then the Sea of Galilee. This is the lowest place of fresh water in the world, and most of the water in Israel comes from here. We also learned that Starbucks got kicked out of Israel for having coffee that was too weak, they didn’t like it.

After lunch we went to the Christian sites mentioned above. Dinner was to be had at a small fish restaurant in the middle of the woods about 500 meters from the Lebanon border. Then we spent the night at a beautiful hotel inside a local kibbutz.

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