Look what I saw today!

 

Capernaum

After breakfast yesterday a colleague of mine in Theology and I went on a bit of a road trip to three really interesting places. He was very interestedi visiting Caperaum, because of its significance in the historical events in Jesus' life. We also wanted to see Tiberias onthe Sea of Galilea and then visit the runs in Sephora (Tsipor). This blog will concenttrate on Capernaum  and the road to Tiberias (and we'll see if I can get to the other parts at some point in time.)

When we picked up the rental car, I saw this decorated box on the side of the road. What a great sentiment!

One often passes people in the military when one travels around the country.

 

What follow are some landscape shots as we headed south to the Sea of Glailea.

 

And of course here is the Sea.

 

In Capernaum we passed a Mnastery and went on to  find the  place where Christ supposedly gave the sermon on the mount.  My friend was of the opinion that the mount was figurative - and that it was only a mountin in order to have a story that runs parallel with that of Moses receiving the Torah. The "mount" we went to, was not a mount - The chpael was midway up the "mount" and quite beautiful of course.

As we came into the city we saw this lovely banl of bouganvillea.

 

Here is the  building  erected in honor of the reception of the beatitudes.

 

It was moving to see people so affected by  their contact with something so close to something important to them.

 

 

We also went to the place where  Jesus produced  five loaves and two fishes.  It was set on the Sea of Galilea. This had something to do with Peter and was called the Primacy of St. Peter.

The brochure said that Jesus brought forth 5 loaves and 5 fishes which amused him, since it didn't square with his reading of the Bible.

 

 

Behingd the chapel people were appreciating the Sea of Galilea.  It was sweet to people finding a connection.  This gentleman carefully icked up a pebble to take back with him. I so identify with that with all my rocks and shells from important places.

It is a very large and beautiful lake.

 

Here is the temple with the fishes and loaves from the outside.

Then we headed to the archaelogical site near the Church that was built over the home of St. Peter. They built a large modern chapel around it. This church is where they supposedly lowered the paralytic through the church floor.

 

They started with a round church which was then enclosed by an octagonal church which was then further built upon. I couldn't get a very good shot of it because it was large and covered by the modern chapel.

 

 Here is a sign that explains the various structures and buildings that have been built on the site.

Here is the inside of the modern chapel above the old site:

Here is a map of the various structures on the site.

 

While I was readng the signs, this kitty came and wanted to be petted. So I petted her and she went to sleep on the narrow ledge of the fencing.

 

I was a little worried she would fall off.

 

She was sound asleep though, so I continued to move across the archaelogical site and look at some of the housing structures. When I turned around I could still see her sleeping happily on the fence.

 

In the opposing area was what has been identified as an early synagigue.

Here are some shots of the surrounding dwellings.

The ornament was absolutely stunning.

 

It was  unique to see an orthodox church standing not far from the ruins.

  

This shot may give a little better sense of how the site is laid out. (You can see the modern chapelthat may have been built over St. Peter's house (and all those churches) on the right.)

 

Here are shots in the other direction at the synagogue.

 

 

 

 

 

On the way out we passed more fragments, but beautifully decorated pieces!  This one seemed like it was a pitcher of wine with grapes on either side.

 

 

Some of the pieces were used in a lovely garden.

 

When we finished  at "Peter's house", we got in the car and headed off to see if we could find something interesting in Tiberias.  Here was the modern town.

 

Wew didn't realize that the old town was farther down the coast, so we got back on the highway and headed for Sephora.

It seems roadside attraction sculptures can be found anywhere - this was a big plaster(?) horse.

 

I'll write about the site of Sephora next time!

Interrmezzo - Random pictures from the last day of on site

So the time for sandbagging and filling has come. I confess, my back isn't really strong enough for the sustained strain placed on it by bagging sand and bucket brigade sand bag lines, so I had to take some time out and work only intermittently.  Here none the less are a few photos I took of the process and generally interesting things on that particular day. Here for example is sunrise over our excavation site.

Here is my supervisor talking to another square supervisor.

This is one of the instructors talking to our square supervisor.

The prior day we were preparing for aerial photos, so I was given a threshhold to clean up. I see a big difference, but most people will probably not be able to notice all the hard work that went into cleaning the dust and dirt off of this little meter of earth. Here is before:

 And this is after - I wish I had captured this at the same angle and same time of day! You can see for example, that the foundation stones are now visible and perhaps you'll notice theat a lot of the detritus and loose gravel are no longer lying aorund haphazardly.

 The site was successfully sand bagged and filled with dirt.

 

 

Back at the Kibbuts I saw this Very Kildeer-like bird - but I have not been able to identify it.