Around the Sea of Galilee and the Coast -- Israel 2

Good Morning!

Although I will post images and write about experiences that have nothing to do with Jesus, there will be one more in this series.

Our plans to hire a driver to take us to sights around the Sea of Galilee weren't needed.  Our guide, realizing that out of the 42 on our tour, about a dozen were Christian and another 4 or 5 were interested, scheduled an early two-hour tour from our spa hotel, about ten miles away--wonderful with a smaller group.  She also scheduled a long morning at Caesarea's Roman ruins--so fascinating!

At the Sea of Galilee, pictured above, I walked away from the group and imagined Jesus and the disciples walking there.  It was one of the most real experiences of connecting that I had.  While the churches were interesting, it is more likely that Jesus preached.outside in this area.

We first went to the Church of the Multiplication, built on remains of earlier shrines, reputed to be on the sight where Jesus multiplied the two fishes and five loaves of bread to feed 4 or 5,000, depending on your Gospel choice.  The floor filled with  fifth century mosaics, has the loaves and fishes before the altar. The photo here is the best one I have, taken in one of the front aisles.

The Church of the Primacy, a short walk from the Multiplication church is a modest chapel incorporating 4th century ruins, commemorates the reinstatement of Peter after his denial of Jesus with Jesus saying "feed my sheep" as recorded in John 21. This led to the Catholic church's believe that Peter was to found the church.  A large rock in the church is supposed to be where Jesus cooked breakfast by the Sea of Galilee that morning.  

 

This photo was taken from the shore of the Sea of Galilee as this
was the place where we walked to the shore to dip in our hands (or feet as some laughingly did).






Our next stop was Capernaum National Park where Jesus
established his base for three years and recruited some of his disciples.  It's also a place of interest for Jews as synagogue ruins dominate the site.  An ultra-modern church, which looks somewhat like a flying ship, has been built over the ruins of a house (Peter's) where Jesus was believed to have lived.
Again, there are wonderful views of the sea.  Below the glass wheel in front of the photo, one can look down and see ruins believed to be that house.

And the synagogue ruins--

At the end of the day, after lunching at a Druze kibbutz and a wine tasting at the Golan Heights Winery, we returned (and drove through Nazareth twice but on the wrong side for the Christian sights), we returned to the area of Jesus' ministry and drove up the Mount of the Beatitudes, the only Christian place actually on our tour schedule.  And it is beautiful!!!  Everything there is pristine with wonderful views of the sea and area surrounding it.  A jarring fact--the domed Catholic Church run by Franciscan sisters was commissioned by Benito Mussolini when he was dictator of Italy!              

All of the beatitudes are on stones such as this one, which seemed the most appropriate in this difficult part of the world.

I'm including the fascinating ruins at Caesarea, about an hour's drive from Tel Aviv on the Mediterranean Sea, in this post or I would be tempted to bore you with an entire post of this amazing site.  We were lucky that it didn't fit in the day where an attempt was made to get two days of stops in so those who wanted to spend time shopping or relaxing in Tel Aviv could.  Consequently, only twelve of us met at 8:30 by our bus to travel to Caesarea, a favorite place for Deena, our guide, who was a fount of knowledge about this port built by Herod.  It was also a Byzantine capital, later a Crusader stronghold and is one of Israel's major archaeological sites.  Excavation there continues today.  Notice the different construction of the layers. There had been a Phoenician settlement on the shoreline as early as 586 BC during the Persia rule.  

For Christians, Caesarea is most identified with Paul and other apostles' ministry.  The Centurion who was the first recorded Gentile to convert to follow Jesus' teachings was said to have done that here.  Paul was also recorded as being imprisoned by Herod in Caesarea.  Others believe that Peter and Paul named their faith Christianity here although I don't know that source.  
                      Our guide, Deena, in front of an amphitheatre where chariots raced and animals fought.

Other photos below:

The next photo is an amusing one.  Herod had an idea of toilets so people were to sit with one hip of each stone and use the area between as a toilet.  One of our folks wanted to climb up and try it out, but Deena said no way.

This sign was fascinating, and one photo is representative.  

It was hard to get close enough to any of these as they were in an area where traffic wasn't allowed.

Finally, the beachfront Roman Aqueduct closed our visit.  Workers cut a channel about 4 miles long through solid rock before water was piped from a spring about 8 miles away in the foothills of Mt. Carmel into the aqueduct.

While it would have been easy to spend a day here, we spent three hours, more than at any archaeological site that we visited, included Petra. Those who went on this trip were very interested and able to walk around in the areas that had steps or rocky paths.  At other spots we were hampered by several who had a difficult time getting around.  While small in number, one was the conference director's wife!