Israel and the Palestinian Territories

We spent a week in Israel, enough time for me to get a taste of the place and enough time for me to know that I should go back someday for more than a week. It's a sacred place for three religions, one of them being Christianity, of which I count myself among the ranks. If you aren't too interested in Biblical or Islamic sites, Israel is probably not the place to go. As for me, I am, and that made the visit very special. I also have a friend going to medical school there, who, aside from being a pleasure to visit, knew his way around the place pretty well. He outfitted us with a map, a rental car, and "The Holy Land: An Oxford Archaeological Guide", which was extremely helpful for understanding the sites and for drawing the line between tradition and archaeological evidence.

Even with the book, it was still hard to imagine what things were like 2000 years ago. And, of course, just a picture and a few words from me will make things even more difficult. I also didn't take a picture of some places because it just felt weird to me. For example, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (If you're curious, you can see what wikipedia has to say). Speaking of churches being built over purported historical sites, I discovered that pretty much every place of traditional significance has had a church built over it. This is good and bad I suppose. Good because the fact the early Christians built churches over everything increases the likelihood that they are the actual places, bad because my Western sensibilities would rather see things as they were originally. Anyway, hopefully my pictures and commentary will serve to give some idea of what it was like.

If I were reading this post, I would appreciate a map, so here it is.
My friend Johnny goes to medical school in Beersheba, which is quite near the Dead Sea. The day we arrived, he took an afternoon off and we made it there just after the sun went down. There was still enough light for a short swim in some very salty water. It was quite a sensation. Adding to the mystique was the Dead Sea's fame for being the lowest place on earth.

After Beersheba, we drove up to Galilee and found a place to stay in Nazareth. Nazareth is a pretty big place these days and doesn't actually have much for a Holy Lands pilgrim such as myself. I did make a quick stop at the Church of the Annunciation, built on the spot where Mary was visited by Gabriel. It had a number of lovely mosaics of the Madonna and Child, my favorite being the Japanese version, because it was a much different image than what I was used to.

Nazareth is pretty close to Capernaum, the town where Peter comes from. It situated on the North side of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus spent quite a bit of time there teaching in the synagogue. It happens to be no longer inhabited, so there are some ruins to explore. There's been a spaceship-like church built over the site of Peter's house, which according to our Oxford guide, is "very probably" the actual place. If you go up in the picture from the spaceship-church (the picture's a photograph of a photograph), you can see the ruins of a synagogue built on top of the ruins of the synagogue Jesus would have taught in.

This is the Jordan River. It was smaller than I expected. It still would have been quite a feat to stop up and cross on your way to Jericho.

This is a pretty picture of the sun setting over the Sea of Galilee. It's entirely surrounded by nice, verdant hills.

These are military helicopters flying over the Sea of Galilee while the sun sets. It's much easier to see the present state of things, rather than how things were 2000 years ago.

This is a fish from the Sea of Galilee. How could it not be a descendant of the fish that the disciples caught and that Jesus multiplied?
After Galilee, we drove down to Jerusalem. We were lucky enough to be there for Easter weekend, which made it extra special. This is the view from the Mount of Olives. The most prominent feature is the Temple Mount, where the golden Dome of the Rock is built.

We got up really early Friday morning to participate in a Stations of the Cross service on the Via Dolorosa. Our Oxford guide said that there is no historical or archaeological evidence that they were the actual spots of the Passion (save the Church of the Holy Sepulchre), but that didn't keep the service from being very special.
Friday night, we went to the Wailing Wall for the beginning of Shabbat.
This is the entrance to the Dome of the Rock. Certainly a very beautiful building. I was going to try to go inside, but unfortunately it was the time for prayers.
We briefly ventured into the West Bank for a trip to Bethlehem and the Church of the Nativity. The attention grabber was not, however, the church, but the wall surrounding Bethlehem on three sides. After visiting, it's hard not to feel like there is something quite wrong about walls fencing in places.
This is me with my friend Johnny just before attending an Easter Vigil in Jerusalem. Apologies for the attempting-to-look-cool smirk. Unfortunately, the big group picture from the Mount of Olives overlooking Jerusalem didn't turn out. However, the blog still needs to have a picture of Johnny; and I think this one will suffice.