One would think that touring would be a nice break from digging. One would also think that touring would be light and fun and easy. One would be wrong! These last two days of touring have exhausted me. Yesterday our mighty hike to Gamla and the walk around Tel Dan were tiring enough. Today we got on the bus again (a much roomier one!) and were off to Beth Shean, Sepphoris and Nazareth. I think I'm more tired today than I was yesterday! So much walking! (I'm not complaining, just making an observation.) I really enjoyed seeing the sites and I will have no problems going to be early in preparation for another day on the dig tomorrow.
Beth Shean is a city of the Decapolis, like Hippos-Sussita. This was our first stop of the day. There have been excavations going on there for 50-60 years and much restoration work has taken place. There are absolutely amazing columns down the main streets (thus making them colonnaded) and the reconstruction of the bathhouse and theatre are beautiful. Those who were really adventuresome climbed the tell (giant hill formed by layers of settlements build on top of the ruins of the settlement before) to get a great view from above. After the hike to Gamla yesterday, I wasn't sure I was ready for round two. I hope someone will give me a picture of the view. The sites on the ground were very nice, too. I definitely would recommend that you visit this site if ever you are in Israel.
The second stop today was Ancient Sepphoris. This was one of the biggest cities in Galilee during the time of Jesus and was even the capital of the region at one point. Sepphoris has the most beautiful mosaics! There were several especially nice ones. One was located in the formal dining room of a Roman home which has been discovered there. In order to restore the mosaic floor, it was actually removed and a new base created for it. Then it was put back in the place where it was found. Another great mosaic to see is in the "Nile house" there. It depicts the story of the Nile through its pictures. The mosaics in this part of Sepphoris were not removed and then restored, but rather restored in place. Thus, there are bumps and holes in the Nile house mosaics but the ones in the Roman home are completely flat. Both are beautiful. At Sepphoris we also saw the Synagogue, the theatre, the Jewish quarter and a Crusader fortress of sorts. There were so many different things to see and take in, that I'm certain I cannot remember them all. As I said yesterday, I could have spent a whole day in each of these places, just exploring and looking at all there is to see.
Our third and last stop today was the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth. Although Nazareth was a tiny village during the time of Jesus, it is now the biggest city in Galilee. Strange how things change over a couple thousand years! Of course, modern Nazareth was nothing like I pictured ancient Nazareth to be. I'm not generally a city fan, and Nazareth was no exception. It was nice to visit, and I can now say that I've been there, but I wasn't that impressed. It was crowded (duh, it's a city...) and so completely foreign (duh, I'm in a foreign country!) Go figure, eh?
The modern church is built over the ruins of the ancient remains that have been found there. Since the ancient village was so tiny, not much has been found. The church was nice and I would have liked to look around a little more and take a few more pictures. But there was a worship service going on while we were there in a little roped-off section. I felt like an intruder and I felt that the flash of my camera was also an intruder. I know that I wouldn't appreciate tourists barging in to my church during worship, and so I turned off my flash and tried to stay in the background. Not that it really helped, since there was a mob of others in the church who weren't even respectful enough to keep quiet! An interesting thing about this church is that there are depictions of Mary and Gabriel donated to the church from all over the world. Many of them are done in mosaics. The one from Canada is all carved out of wood. I can't say that it was my favourite. But, it wasn't my least favourite, either...
So now I'm back at the Kibbutz and thinking about tomorrow. Another week on the dig site. The prospect of another early morning tomorrow doesn't excite me in the least, but I am anxious to see if we can manage to find those walls and I wonder what we will find at the bottom of our square. I anticipate that our team will soon been reassigned to another section of the dig as there is certainly not enough work left in E6 to keep us all busy for another week. Let phase two of the adventure begin!
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