Advertisement
Published: September 25th 2008
The city of Megiddo controls several vital land routes for travelers between Europe, Asia, and Africa. By one estimate, a city has been built here, destroyed, and rebuilt 25 times! Although no city exists here now, the plain is still a strategic battlefield. Genghis Khan's army marched all the way here from Mongolia in an attempt to reach North Africa, but here they were defeated by the Mamelukes. As recently as 1948, the final defeat of the Arabs by the Jews took place here. Indeed a fitting symbol for God's final war on his enemies.
On our drive through the valley, we stopped at the Gas Station of Megiddo, where some of us used the Bathrooms of Megiddo. I purchased some Pringles of Megiddo, and a Nestea of Megiddo. Apocalyptic! (Sorry, that was bad. But it was quite a revelation. Sorry! Sorry! I did it again.)
We next visited Capernaum. This was the home of Simon, Andrew, James, and John, and the ruins of the house of Simon's mother-in-law are still visible. Jesus lived here for some time, and performed many miracles here. And it was here in Capernaum that he first allowed himself to be openly identified as
the Messiah. "Who do you say I am?" he asked Simon. "You are the Christ," Simon answered. "And you are Peter," Jesus replied.
This evening we are staying in a hotel on the beach in Tiberias. I swam in the Sea of Galilee, and then dried off on a very rocky beach. Nearby someone had created a ring of stones for a charcoal fire. I was reminded of the resurrected Jesus exhorting Peter to "Feed my little sheep". The scene would have looked very much like this.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.082s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 13; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0455s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Laura
non-member comment
ruins
Hi David! What great pictures... I'm sure these are just a few of the 100s or 1000s you've taken. Can't wait to see more. :) How cool that you got to swim the the Sea of Galilee... is it salt or sweet water? Also I wonder about that photo of Capernaum. Is the entire city in ruins, or do people still live there/around there? Are all of the places you've visited protected and preserved archeological sites? Does the country take care of them for the sake of tourism? And as far as tourism goes... did you run into many people traveling the country?