An amazing fact is that there is a water supply under Beer-Sheba that is larger than lake Galilee.
When you consider the location of Israel you can understand why it has always been disputed land and yet God chose it to be the land of His people. Much should be considered to understand why. The theology of the land required utter dependency on God.
We next toured two different uncovered sites that revealed how 9th -8th century BC Israelites lived and tried to protect themselves. The second one at Arad we find an uncovered Temple replica including an attempt at a Holy of Holies. It is a reminder of how many ways God's people worship Him in a make shift manner that attempts a syncretism with the culture around them and it always corrupts the worship God commands.
Wednesday, January 14,2016 My birthday! Had breakfast in dining room which consisted of cold scrambled eggs and mushrooms, fresh fruit and a tasty pastry with an unknown filling. Coffee and what I thought was grapefruit juice, but was lemonade.
ReplyDeleteWe boarded the bus at 8 am and went to the city of Beer Sheeva. The tour guide took us to "Abraham's Well" a tourist trap for he know it wasn't the real Abraham's well. It was a little hokie:).
We then traveled about 20 minutes to an uncovered site called Tel Be'er Sheeva. We walked down a 17 meter deep shaft to view a water system with a total capacity of about 700 cubic meters. also uncovered here was a 4 horned altar.
We boarded the bus for another 20-30 minutes to Arad for lunch in a new shopping area. The "Grill" restaurant servers were aggressive in getting a number of us to come into their establishment to seat and feed us. We weren't sure what we were being fed but ate with reserved adventure. They gave us unleavened bread with small dishes of veges and hummus etc. to dip in. Then rice with a tomato sauce and french fries with "ketchup" more like sweet and sour sauce! I thought we were finished and then they brought out skewers of meat. Eric had me try a bite of beef" which was really liver and oh so hard to choke down. They served us lemonade which tasted more like grapefruit juice. The meal cost us 45 NIS about $12 each.
We boarded the bus again for a short drive to Arad- Upper City and toured ruins of a fortified city on a hill. We could see the Hebron Valley to the north and Negev Valley to the south. The city had remnants of a small temple, servants quarters and living quarters.
Although our itinerary stated we may go into Hebron to the burial sites our guide wasn't comfortable for our safety with tensions being high right now. We made our way back to the hotel to rest up for dinner.
We dined again at the hotel at 7 pm. They served the same food as the night before We ate simply but made sure I had some cake to celebrate my 49th birthday. It tasted like frosting and I just ate the crumb crust. Oh well!
Took a stroll in the evening and had a quiet night as we have an early morning tomorrow.