Israel in a Day, Part 3

June 29, 2013  Saturday

After our delicious 1st-century meal in Nazareth Village, we set out for Galilee.  It was nice to be on a bus instead of hiking up and down rugged cobblestone or rocky paths.

We were told that this small Catholic church in Nazareth is a popular site for weddings -- imagine the great view from up there!

We were held up for about 45 minutes getting out of Nazareth because of this accident.  That meant we had to skip our stop at Migdal.  :(

We can't tell whether the house on the left is abandoned or simply not yet finished.  These are expensive houses on the outskirts of Nazareth.  It's amazing how close together they are!

First glimpse of the Sea of Galilee:

There's a nice little park....

... and a big visitors' center complete with souvenir shop and food venders.

When we were here in 2003, we went out on the lake in a large boat.  This time we watched sailboats.

And we walked out on a jetty.

It's a beautiful lake.

During a 1986 drought which caused the lake to recede, a 2000-year-old fishing boat was discovered on the northwestern shore.  We saw this boat in 2003, and were amazed to learn of the long and careful process used to extract the boat from the mud and preserve the wood.  The boat is now on display in the museum within the visitors' center, and may be seen for a fee.  This photo is from wikipedia -- we didn't want to pay the fee.

We left the Sea of Galilee and headed south.  We passed Mount Tabor, traditional site of the Transfiguration of Jesus, but didn't get a photo.  It really reminds me of West Mountain, Utah, near my hometown of Payson.  The vegetation is similar, both mountains are free-standing (not connected to a range), both are near a fresh-water lake, both lakes drain into the Jordan River, and both Jordan Rivers feed into a salt lake.  James Tabor (no relation to the mountain!) says he thinks the transfiguration site was probably Mount Hermon, farther to the north.

This is not a mountain, but a tel.  This is an archaeologist's dream, ready to be excavated.  We think this is Tel Salim, traditionally associated with the Biblical Melchizedek, King of Salem.

Hmm.... what's going on here?

More traffic delays!

We made it back to the hotel before 7 p.m. -- in time for one of our team members to catch his flight home.  This is a fitting end to week 2 of the dig.