You Know It's Hot When...

Very, very hot day today. You can tell it’s hot here when the natives, like our tour guide Mike, start commenting about the heat. Mike says it’s not usually this hot at this time of year, but when we stopped for lunch in Cana of Galilee, I checked the weather app which said it was 106 at that time. Whew! But we walked and sweated and had a great day.

We began the day following the other river that feeds into the Jordan River, that comes from the country of Jordan. We drove along the border, along what Mike called the “Grand Canyon” of Jordan. It was very beautiful, with a deep gorge surrounded by caves and green trees.

From there, we went to explore the ancient Roman city of Bet She’an, the city where the first king of Israel, Saul, lost a battle and was killed. The city today boasts a great archaeological recovery, though only a small percentage of the actual city has been unearthed. Much of it lies still beneath modern Bet She’an. We walked through a Roman amphitheater (where we sang a song and Rachel did some cartwheels on stage), a Roman bath (Mitch was fascinated by the ancient toilets), and along the Cardo Maximus (Main Street, “heart of the city”). We imagined life there with shops and carts and people bustling—life as we know it, ancient style.

Lunch was in Cana of Galilee, the place where Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding feast. We didn’t have wine! We had shawerma, a mixture of chicken and lamb in a pita shell. It was quite tasty. There was also falafel and schnitzel available. After lunch, Mike bought us fresh-baked baklava—I don’t know that I’ve ever tasted anything quite so good. Rachel had two pieces!

After lunch, we explored another archaeological site, Sepphoris or Zippori. Many, many beautiful mosaics have been found, even in the synagogue and the “Mona Lisa of the Galilee” was found here. There is also a theater here and a Crusader tower, which we climbed to the top of. What makes Sepphoris significant is that it is only five miles from Nazareth, and even though we don’t know for sure, there is a very high probability that Joseph and perhaps even Jesus worked here. As they were “tektons” (carpenters, stone masons, craftsmen), their work would have been in high demand in this city that was being built when Jesus was growing up. Might Jesus himself have laid any of the mosaic tile? It’s cool to speculate! We also walked through their ancient water system, which filtered out the sediment and provided clean, clear water to the town.

Our final stop of the day was a short hike to the top of Mt. Arbel. The view from the top was well worth the walk, and most of us made it all the way to the top despite being very tired and very hot. From the top, we could see many towns, the Sea of Galilee, and we could hear the Muslim call to prayer from a nearby town. Mt. Arbel is directly above the route from Nazareth (Jesus’ boyhood home) to Capernaum (where he lived during his ministry), so he would have passed under its shadow often.

Today ended as yesterday: swimming to cool off, dinner, then gelato on the promenade. Tomorrow morning we leave Tiberias and head east toward the coast. Tomorrow night we will stay along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.