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Published: August 9th 2005
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Today was incredible! In the midst of the campground, I was able to find a little remote area nestled between 2 trees where the water was just starting to become rapid. I was able to read my bible and reflect/pray on how many blessings God has giving me. Including being able to come to Israel and spend time in the area that Jesus lived. This has been an amazing experience for me; most of which I can't even begin to put into words.
After breakfast (pita, cucumbers, tomato, cheese and turkish/arabic coffee - there was a pretty healthy debate on who invented it) off to Nimrod's Fortress. Unlike most of the other places we've visited, Nimrod was built as an offensive fortress. It's located on the top of Mt. Hermon. At 9,200 feet above sea level, Mount Hermon is the highest mountain in Israel, Lebanon, and Syria. (There were times when I didn't think our bus was going to make it). This gave them the strategic advantage of being able to see where there enemies were. Once they saw their enemies they could attack! It was built in 1228 on 8 acres and is about 1400 ft long and upto 500ft
Arabic Carvings
Don't ask me what this says.... wide.
The view from the fortress is spectacular. You can see the whole valley and the surrounding mountains. Judging from the remains, the actual fortress must have been huge! I walked through several rooms. The rooms were pretty small but each had either a window or a small slit (to shoot arrows through perhaps). There were tons of little passageways. Often, we would go down 1 set of stairs, cross through underground, go through a passageway and up another set of stairs and find ourselves back where we started. We found a secret passageway (Ok, there's a map that told us how to find it). At one point we went down a spiral staircase in complete darkness. I kept thinking I was going to miss a step and break my neck. But everything was fine. I could have stayed there longer, but alas, we had to move on to the next stop.
From Nimrod we went to the ancient city of Dan. Dan was a Caanite city near the border of Lebanon that dates back to the time of Joshua sometime before 1200BC. The Israelites occupied the city from 1200 to 586 BC (Joshua 19:47).
The surrounding area is beautiful.
It was like walking through a rainforest (in the middle of the desert). There were streams everywhere. Like the water at the campsite and Banias the stream here flows into the Jordon river.
The first sign of the city we came across was the entrance - the Israelite gates. The city was builty weith 2 sets of gates and chambers. This allowed for better security during attacks. Behind each gate the chamber would be filled with soldiers waiting to defend the city if the gates were broken down with the enemies battering rams. When there wasn't fighting, the gates served as a sort of assembly place for the wise, high officials and elders. These would be the type of place that Boaz went to redeem Ruth (Ruth 4:1-11) and where the respected husband of the woman of noble character would be (Proverbs 31:23).
During the time of the Isrealites, King Jeriboam set up Dan as an alternate to Jerusalem for the people to worship at. Now Jeriboam was not concerned with his peoples spiritual condition, he just wanted to prevent his people from returning to Jerusalem, where they would most likely realign with Rehiboam (King of Judah). In fact, Jeriboam
Secret Passage
Sharifa (NY) and Josephine (Toronto) set up idols for the people to worship (1 Kings 12:25-30). I was suprised at the size of the alter. It was much larger than I had expected.
After leaving the alter, we made our way back by crossing over the stream's many rocks. It's a good thing that it was the last part of the trip that involved getting my shoes wet, as one of my Tevas was taped up because it fell apart during the previous days hike. So although the tape was starting to come undone, my Teva stayed together through the remainder of the trip.
Before heading back to Jerusalem, we made one last stop at the Sea of Galilee. I stood in the rocky shallows of the water (ouch - I took off my Teva's), just soaking everything in. The water is much warmer here than at Dan and the campsite. I smiled at the sea and remembered that somewhere near here Jesus had walked on this body of water.
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