Israel

Israel has 2 main ports: Ashdod and Haifa. The ship spent one day docked in each. Since we spent a week in Israel a few years ago, we decided to not go to Jerusalem, but to find lesser-known sites instead.

On our first day we wandered through Jaffa and Tel Aviv. Jaffa is a delightful old city, referred to in the Old and New Testaments. It was a walled city, although the wall has disappeared. Jaffa sits on a hill and it turns out that it’s sitting on an old Egyptian settlement, where a raid similar to the Trojan-horse episode occurred 700 years prior to the Trojan horse.

Jaffa has always had a tricky harbor to maneuver. Picture 1 shows the original lighthouse, which required a fire to be burning inside the little dome. Picture 2 shows a typical street in the old medieval city.

Picture 3 shows one of the more famous streets. This is where Napoleon chose to attack the then-Turkish city. Turkish sharpshooters repelled the attackers for some time, until one Captain figured out that the door on the right led to the cellars, which ran for some distance under the city. Game over! Napoleon wins! Napoleon then gathered approximately 3000 of the enemy, from all over the Arab world. He singled out the Egyptians, took their rifles and shoes and sent them home, since he had just conquered Egypt. The remainder he lined up and killed. Nice guy….

Picture 4 is a view of Tel Aviv from Jaffa. It was interesting to see drawings and pictures from earlier times. Tel Aviv was a sand dune! Tel Aviv is a modern, sprawling city, with no ancient history. We were told that it had a vibrant restaurant and café scene that rivaled New York and Paris. Not being “fun people”, we can’t personally attest to that!

While docked in Haifa, we took a 10-hour tour to Galilee and the Golan Heights. Geographically, this is northern Israel which extends to the Lebanese, Syrian and Jordanian borders.

We started at Zippori National Park, which encompasses the small village, and archeological treasure trove, of Zippori. It has been both a Roman village and a crusader village.  A top find here is a mosaic floor (Picture 5) from a wealthy person’s home. It contains stories about Dionysus, but mystery surrounds the woman shown in Picture 6. She’s called the Mona Lisa of Galilee, but no one has ever identified her. Picture 7 show’s the toilet found just outside the dining room shown in Picture 5. No comfy seats here!

Picture 8 shows the Zippori Citadel, which was built by the crusaders in the 12^th century. If you look at the lower right corner of the front, you will see 2 large white blocks. The Crusaders recycled 2 Roman sarcophagi to reduce the number of blocks that had to be cut from the surrounding hillside. As we walked around the building, we found a total of 6 reused sarcophagi.

We visited 2 famous bodies of water. Picture 9 is the Sea of Galilee, with a sea level marker in the foreground. It’s not just the Dead Sea that’s below sea level; the Sea of Galilee is 200+ feet below sea level too. Connecting the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea is the Jordan River, shown in Picture 10. It actually starts in the hills up toward Lebanon.  

While the Jordan River did look tranquil in the picture above, nearby it’s very busy. Yardenit is the designated site where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. Today, it is a busy pilgrimage sight with a grand gift shop operated by an Israeli Kibbutz! Picture 11 shows one priest baptizing pilgrims from Ethiopia. All purchase a white robe from the gift shop and immerse themselves in the river. The priest in black stays dry. Individual pilgrims fill a plastic container that holds about 1 gallon of water and hand it to the priest. The priest then pours it over them and touches their forehead and lips with a cross. Picture 12 shows another priest in the water, who is splashing water on the faces of other pilgrims. An interesting experience….

We then climbed onto the Golan Heights, which is a drive that provides spectacular scenery. We were in the area where Syria, Jordan and Israel meet. Pictures 13 and 14 show views across the borders. Occasionally, however, the drive reminds us of the political situation in that region. Picture 15 shows a Syrian-built bunker from the period when Syria controlled the Golan Heights. (There were also signs warning about unexploded Syrian mines left here….) Today, Israel maintains a field hospital at the Syrian border to fix, heal and feed Syrian refugees. They are then sent back across the border. Our guide explained that they had to help their neighbors—the people they help are not the ones causing political problems. How true….

Our next stop was Capernaum, with a sign at the entrance to the town that called it “Jesus’ Town”. According to the Bible, Jesus visited Capernaum and stayed with the Apostle Peter’s inlaws. While there, he also visited the synagogue. Picture 16 shows a new, modern church, which was built over the remains of Peter’s inlaws’ house, with a clear floor that allows you to look into the house below. It was a little sketchy about how they knew whose house it was, but our guide seemed quite certain. Turning 180 degrees from the view shown in Picture 16, you see the remains of the synagogue, shown in Picture 17. Over time they’ve determined that the synagogue ruins shown are not the synagogue Jesus visited, but the darker foundation below is believed to be the remains of Jesus’ synagogue. That Jesus visited seems pretty certain, but we’re not as convinced that we’ve gotten the buildings documented correctly!

Our final stop was at the beautiful Baha’I Gardens (Picture 18). Haifa is the world headquarters of the Baha’I religion and the gardens there are spectacular. Our guide explained that the Baha’i religion is like Islam updated, where women are given equal rights.

Interestingly, 4 religions claim Israel as a key site in their history: Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Baha’i. Now if these 4 religions could just get everyone in the region to live peacefully….

Greece, Turkey, Croatia and Italy—only a few more days.