Jericho Field Trip

Shabbot Shalom!!!

It is the Sabbath (Saturday) here, and I am finally getting around to posting pictures from our field trip to Jericho that was this past Thursday. We spent half a day visiting the city of Jericho, seeing the ruins of Herod's winter palace, and walking around the road between Jericho and Jerusalem where the Wadi Qelt is (and where the story of the Good Samaritan is placed)

           

Getting on the bus :-)

The sign behind the camel says "Sea Level" Jericho claims to be the lowest city in the world--it is quite a bit below sea level. As soon as we passed this sign, Brother Judd led us in singing "Under the Sea" from the Little Mermaid... 

Our first stop was Jericho, which claims to be the oldest city in the world (as far as written records go, it appears to be), the lowest city in the world (the city is below sea level as aforementioned), and the place with the best bananas in the world (they were pretty good...). 

Me and Susana in front of the fountain that says "Jericho"

We saw these dogs laying in the sun :-)

Me and Paige--behind us is the traditional Mount of Temptation, which is where Jesus was tempted by Satan after fasting for 40 days and 40 nights

this is a neolithic tower that was discovered in Jericho and dates back to 9000BC 

This is a monastery that is on the Mount of Temptation in commemoration of Jesus Christ

We are re-inacting the destruction of Jericho by Joshua's armies (see Joshua 6:20)

Lindsay is super stylish with her jean jacket and fanny pack ;-)

Skylar, Heidi, and I are standing in front of this wall that dates back to the Middle Bronze Age (and is hypothesized stayed up throughout the Late Bronze Age). When they discovered it, there was a pile of mud bricks on it, and in several places, the mud bricks had spilled or been tipped off. It is somewhat likely that this may have been one of the walls that fell when Joshua's armies sounded the trumpets in Joshua 6:20. However, there is no way to know and there isn't really much evidence to prove either way. Regardless, this is the spot where that ancient city would have stood :-)

These are remnants of the mud bricks at the base of the wall.

This is the spring in Jericho. It has been running for thousands of years and continues to gush out 1,000 gallons a minute, supplying the modern city of Jericho with water :-)

      This spring is also the spot where Elisha healed the water in 2 Kings 2:21

Sarah trying pomegranate juice--there is tons of freshly squeezed juices in the Near East :-)

This tree is cool, so we took a family picture on it :-)

Sarah trying the "world's best banana" and in all honesty, it was an excellent banana :-)

This tree is the same type of tree that Zacchaeus would have been sitting in as mentioned in Luke 19:2-8

We are cool :-)

It was Tye's birthday that day!!! hooray!!!

Our next stop was to see the ruins at Herod's winter palace :-)

Kara has a rad hat.

The wind tried to blow it away, but Kara wouldn't let it :-)

Yay!

These excavations reveal what would have been Herod's "bomb shelter" basically, Herod was very paranoid and if his enemies came to kill him, he would hide in this area that is close to where his palace was.

Hunter teaching the class about Herod's palace (We are all assigned a different site and when we get there, we share our research before the professors tell us the rest of the information...I thought this was a rad shot...)

Susana hanging out on a rock near Herod's palace :-)

Spencer and Jacob reenacting Herod's murder of...well...everyone... haha ;-) Herod "the great" was very paranoid and had a ton of people killed including his wife, his brother in law, his son, etc... Behind them is the remains of the winter palace :-)

Me and Paige (and Eden) 

This was taken from the window of the bus--these camels were just hanging out...

On our drive to Wadi Qelt, the road is super windy, and I snapped this picture of this totaled car that had apparently gone off the cliff...

artistic...

cool tree...

In the distance is Jerusalem

In the distance is Jericho

Behind me is the Judean Wilderness and the St. George Monastary

This area is the Judean Wilderness between Jerusalem and Jericho. This is the setting for the parable of the Good Samaritan

check me out--the hills of the Judean Wilderness are MASSIVE.

the greener parts are where the Wadi (river) has gone through

Happy Birthday to Tye (aka Tynamite) 

Sawyer meditating--what a stud.

On the bus ride home--we passed a ton of Bedouin villages that are basically tents/lean-to structures/bits of scrap metal made into shelters... It was really interesting...

Sidenote: Jericho is in the West Bank, so we were in Palestine-controlled area and had our security guards from the JC with us the whole day... It was really interesting!!!

Love you all!!!

-Erika