The Land of Abraham and our farthers

I decided to split up my posts to two posts history and culture. This is post one - historical places and the complex history of this old land. Let’s start with its epicentre and move out:

JERUSALEM
On the left is a picture of the pools of Bethesda where Jesus (supposedly) healed a leper, built on that are roman baths, built on that is a byzantine church onto which they built a crusader church. This is carried across the whole of the old city. From the first and second temple period (roman jews) most things have been destroyed during and post the ‘jewish war’. A truly roman Israel lasted till the muslim nation of ottomans, then followed by the Christian nations of the crusadse including Byzantium (all 10 crusades had limited success) until the Muslim era including saluman, then a bit more confusion culminating in the establishment of the Jewish state of Israel - To say nothing of the Persians, Egyptians, Assyrians, English (British mandate era) ,Russians, and even a few French (Napoleon)... you start to get the picture. So through this time a lot more has been lost than saved but there is an incredible amount to see.
The city is divided into jewish muslim arminian ect quaters. It contains things such as the church of the holy sepulchre which is divided (suprise suprise, very strictly, with lines drawn on the ground ) between the various sects (roman catholic, Greek-orthodox, Anglican, Ethiopian...) of Christianity. It represents the, supposed, location of where Jesus was nailed to the cross and his tomb, and is thus the culmination of the 12 stations of the cross. I could continue about the mount of olives, king davids tomb, the mound of the rock, mt. Zion and so forth but i think you get the point.




ACRE
Once we had our car, it was easy to move about the state and a great way to get to all these places. The city of Acre has seen off a lot of invaders not least of all Napoleon bonepart who failed to take the city after a 2 month siege and massive assault. There is a massive complex of tunnels and cavers that saw uses form knights halls and prisons to mental institutions.


HAIFA
Famous for the garden complex that monks put down and tend with meticulous care... if only the cooks where this careful. I got a bad bout of food poisoning and then still had to travel (before the sabath kicked in). So i popped some pills to keep me on my feet, holding in diarria and vomiting – though that might be a socks up moment there on the bus - but I made it back to Jerusalem, lay on the grass for a few hours, and then got back to Palestine.

CEASARIA
King herod the great’s grand dream. Now an archaeological national park. These extensive ruins include a roman hippodrome and bathhouses (50BC) Arabic ruins and byzantine and crusader fortifications finally taken (and leveled) by baibars, in 1250.

PETRA

Ok technically in Jordan however you can see Israel from there so i think it counts. Here the ancient nepatians built a city (or at least their tombs and holy sites) into the walls of rock in huge impressive sculptures. Surviving for thousands of years these artwork hewn into the shear cliff face was a symbol of their power and prominence. The entrance tough the siq (canyon) is impressive and held out against military powers for thousands of years (until the Romans). It did not, however, open up to a large chamber containing the holy grail and a bunch of Nazis - as the movies would have you believe.

MASADA

A massive hill fort featuring heavily in Jewish, nepatian and roman history alike. The ‘masada complex’ a we can never be taken attitude is easy to understand when you stand on the impressive rampats and palace ruins. Of course they were proved wrong by the Romans who with the sesame street motto “can’t go under it, can’t go round it...” built a massive ramp all the way up the walls and took it in 70AD.)

JERICO
This sleepy town is the longest continuously occupied city in the world. Including ruins of a nice Place and a Tower dating back 8,000 years (Long before the pyramids of Egypt). Also, a nice spot for lunch.

BLACK SEA \ Ein Gedai
Ok not so much histororical as hysterical, this tourist resort allows you to float on the dead sea (wich is an amassing feeling, especially for people who don’t float) as well as cover yourself in mud and wash it off with sulphur... uhm you had to be there.