Sunday 2/24/08

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February 24

Boker Tov! We say Shalom to Jerusalem and head north toward Tel Aviv, with two stops along the way, Megiddo and Caesarea. Megiddo is a large archeological site of about 15 acres. There were 20 cities that were built at Megiddo – one above the other over the course of 5,000 years of continuous occupation. We learn that Megiddo is in a strategic place and inhabited during the Neolithic period to today where there is a kibbutz (Kibbutz Megiddo) adjacent to the Tel.

The first written account of Megiddo occurs in the Late Bronze age during the time of Pharaoh Thutmose III (1479 BCE). This area is mentioned in the Jewish Bible in Joshua 12:21. Both Joshua and Judges relate that the Canaanites inhabited the city. Several structures are attributed to Solomon (1Kings 7:9). The city continued to be attacked and taken over by the successors and in 733 BCE, Israelite Megiddo was destroyed by Assyrian king Tiglath Pilsa. Romans took over the city and then Napoleon. This site is important to Christians because in the New Testament book of Revelation mentions the site as the last great battle of the world. Christians come from all over the world to pray at the site and while we are looking at the ruins, we see two large Christian groups.

We have lunch at a mall in modern Caesarea. A few folks head over to McDonalds and Jackie orders a Mc Kabob (see picture). She gives me the container the Mc Kabob comes in. The package shows the Hebrew letters for Mc Kabob and on the back, there are instructions in Hebrew, Russian, and Arabic. It cracks me up and I take pictures of the container and you will see them here on the blog.

Ancient Caesarea was once the site of a Phoenician port and over the course of 12 years, Herod built Caesarea to be the grandest city other than Jerusalem in Palestine. This is another city that had different cultures building on the previous foundation. For Jews, this is the site where Rabbi Akiva was killed by the Romans during the Bar Kochba revolt in 135 CE.

What I didn't know was that Caesarea is very important to Christians because there are inscriptions found here of Emperor Tiberius and Pontius Pilate providing archaeological evidence of Pilate’s existence. While we are visiting Caesarea we are in the middle of a very large group of Nigerian Christian pilgrims visiting the site.

By evening we drive to Tel Aviv and settle into the hotel. Tel Aviv is a very metropolitan society - very European in style. Tomorrow, we will be exploring more of Tel Aviv and visiting the Museum of the Diaspora and Independence Hall. We will also shop and have a farewell dinner before heading for the plane.

I will try to squeeze in one more blog before getting on the plane. Otherwise, I will update the blog once more when we get back to Santa Clarita. Thank you for reading and for your comments. Here are my pictures of Megiddo and Caesarea.