Walking on the Walls of Jerusalem

You can see a lot from the top of the walls of Jerusalem. On a clear day view stretches for miles. It's incredible to see all of these historical places in perspective from up high.... definitely gives a new understanding of this important and beautiful city!

On a hot July afternoon, my friends and I decided to walk on the Northern route of the Ramparts walk, starting at the Jaffa Gate. In the distance (below) you can see the Tower of David (next week's post). These walls are almost 500 years old, constructed by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire in the 1500s.

The entrance to Jaffa Street!

I love this French hospital. Such a beautiful building!

Definitely very little shade up here! Bring water!

Looking out from the Arab quarter:

I'm not sure why, because I knew where we were, but when I looked up and saw the hillside beside the building, it took my breath away. There it is: Golgatha.

The ancient and modern together always amazes me.

Turning to look inside the Old City, here's the rooftop view with the Mosque in the middle:

A peek at the Mount of Olives:

That's it for the tour of the northern part of the Ramparts Walk. I hope to go back and walk the southern route later this year. Stay tuned!

Who are the Circassians?

In March, I visited Kfar Kama in the Jezreel Valley. Its residents are a people group I'd never heard of before. Have you ever heard of the Circassians?

The Circassians are from the northwest Caucasus Region. This Muslim people group suffered a genocide at the hands of Russia in the early 19th century and were exiled to Turkey and the Middle East.

Today, there are 10 million Circassians in the world. Though they are far from their homeland, their culture and language remain. Since I am learning Hebrew, I was fascinated to learn about their language, which is pictorial, using onomatopoeia, words that look like they sound, like "Meow". Like Hebrew, each letter has a meaning. Their language doesn't have gender; there isn't even a word for "he" or "she". They won't say, "My husband" or "my wife", because no one belongs to anyone. Because there are not enough consonants to complete the language, words have multiple meanings. For this, and many other reasons, context is key.

While in Kfar Kama, I got to tour the ancient town, see artifacts, and watch a demonstration of the cultural dances. It was so cool!

Today you get to experience this with me!

Can you see the basalt in the building materials? What a beautiful town!

Kfar Kama known as one of the cleanest cities in the world. But they don't have cleaning crew, because everyone in the town cleans the town.

This symbol on the building is from the Circassian flag.

Peek-a-boo!

Traditional clothes and artifacts:

Now for the dancing! It was so beautiful. The girl looked like she was floating. My favorite dance was the one about the eagle. 

The story goes that there was a guy who couldn't dance well, so he intentionally made up funny dances imitating different animals that made everyone laugh. And then one day he and his wife did a dance like a pair of eagles, and no one laughed. It was so beautiful that they said, "We aren't going to call this one 'the eagle dance', we are going to name it after you."

So fun!

Exploring the prophet Elisha's hometown

Not far from Beit She'an is another tel. This one isn't built up into a national park; there's honestly not a lot going on with it. It's just there in a field, with beautiful 360 degree views of the Jordan Valley, Mount Gilboa, and Jordan. 

It's also believed to be the hometown of Elisha.

So one particularly warm day in January, I took a metronit to a train to a bus and then walked a lot to explore Elisha's hometown.

It took a lot longer to get there than I thought it would, mostly because one bus never came and then I tried to enter the field in a way that was blocked by barbed wire and had to back track to the road. But finally, I found the right path. 

Then, I climbed up and started to explore. 

First, can we talk about the views?

To the west, to Mount Gilboa

To the east... the mountains in the distance are Jordan (at the time of Elisha, that was still Israel).

Wow! At the top there are also dirt paths like you see above. There are motorcycle and dirt-bike tracks all over them, as well as footprints and pottery shards.

Most of the tel is smooth, but one excavated part remains open:

According to BibleWalks, Rehov was likely settled at the same time as Megiddo, and likely conquered by Egypt at the same time as Megiddo. It's passively mentioned as one of Beit She'an's towns in Judges 1:27. Around the time of David, it was conquered by Israel and eventually was part of the Northern Kingdom.

Excavations in 9 areas revealed that it was a large and prosperous city. Findings of artifacts from other countries prove the residents continued to practice Canaanite/Phoenician and Syrian traditions and customs.

It was eventually destroyed by the Assyrians in the 736 BC invasion. The Assyrians lived there for a while but then moved to Megiddo. It laid in ruins for 1500 years, and then a small Jewish town was built nearby in the Roman Era. In the Middle Ages, an Arab town settled on top.

What's most interesting about this tel are the findings in the opened excavated areas:

Found in the ruins was an apiary dating back to the 10th Century BC, with the remains of dozens of beehives in clay cylinders. This is unique for many reasons:

First, the apiary was very close to a bunch of houses. This means it was likely this was a source of income for the townspeople. 

Second, signs on the property say that when they tested the apiary, the found the bees themselves didn't originate from Israel. This particular group of bees came from Turkey! Apparently, they were less aggressive and more productive than Syrian bees.

So funny! 

It gives new meaning to the phrase "land flowing with milk and honey"!

My favorite part of the day, other than the adventure and the views, was going back from the tel and finding the local springs right beside it. Even though it was January, it was close to 80 degrees that day and I was hot! I waded in and cooled off before heading to the bus stop.

Definitely a great adventure!