Experiencing the Land first hand

At 6am, the sharp ring of our morning wake up call jolted many of us up and out of bed, eager for our first day on this adventure. After a quick breakfast, we hit the road!

First stop: Kiariath Jiriam, a beautiful garden and historic town replica created initially as a memorial of sorts, but later found to have had biblical ties, much like everywhere in this gorgeous country.

Next, we moved onto Beth Shemesh. Biblically, this is where God told the Tribe of Dan to conquer and destroy the Philistine city that was already there, but instead decided to live in coexistence with. This is also where Samson was born and raised. Needless to say, there is a lot of historical significance there. To be honest, the sight at first glance was not overly impressive; crumbling ruins, lots of shrubs, and what seemed to be serval different types of stone everywhere. But it was so much more exciting than that, the ruins were well preserved, and the rocks were not entirely rocks, but also pieces of 1000 year old pottery! We also toured a broken cistern used for Beth Shemesh shortly before hopping on the bus again!

This next stop was incredibly impressive. Azekah was a beautiful, tree covered hill with a short walk to the top, and one of the most stunning views imaginable. There below us was the large expanse of the Valley of Elah, which has a dried river bed running through it. This was possibly the one the most anticipated stops on our tour here, because the Valley of Elah has a history that everyone knows, regardless of biblical knowledge. This is where the battle of David and Goliath took place. We were able to go down into the valley, to the river bed and collect 5 smooth stones for ourselves, which is what David did before defeating Goliath. It was surreal to say the least.

After Azekah was the caves of Adullam, which was a cave and tunnel system in which David hid from Saul in, and wrote Psalm 57. The area itself is an open park in which anyone can come at most anytime, and was cluttered with young Jewish boys climbing on trees, and through protective railings, as if unfazed with these feeble attempts at safety. The tunnels were incredibly narrow, and we all had to army crawl through while holding onto our flashlights. Following little green arrows that had been pre-placed along the route, it felt as though we were being lured into a trap of sorts in which we had no exit strategy. Thankfully we all emerged in one piece, but I don't think that was something most of us would try again any time soon!

Last was Bet Guvrin, or Maresha, a national park with incredible history. Maresha was an ancient city that sat above and along the Via Maris, the largest and most prominent trade route in the region. That alone would have made Maresha a valuable city simply based on location, but they were over achievers, so I'm told. Historians believe that it was the worlds leading producer of Olive oil, due to the 27 olive presses that were found there, and documents in surrounding continents writing to Maresha asking for olive oil to trade. But the most impressive discoveries made there is actually it's vast underground city system that was hand carved into the limestone of the land. We descended some old stairs ( mostly original) first into a Pigeon Farm, which had hundreds of niches carved out in the walls for the birds to nest. Then we continued on and through a city system with countless rooms and corridors of breathtaking size and skill. It was amazing to behold the engineering of ancient architects for ourselves. Fun fact: this is also the birthplace of Herod The Great.

We are now preparing for bed at our hotel, here at the Dead Sea. We came from the mountains of Judah, down to the Negev Desert in a span of only 12 hours. Incredible.