magdalla to kursi

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first stop today magdalla a relatively new excavation of a town near tiberius we had a good guide there who explained the ancient town and how it came to an end around AD70 it had a large synagogue with mosaics on the floors and plastered walls but it was demolished by its own residents when the Romans approached to make a wall, you can see all the stones and pillars that belong to the synagogue roughly put together to make a wall to protect the city but it did not keep the Romans out and we know the Romans were there because they found a roman sword and roman dice as well as all the Jewish coins etc.

it was from here that Mary Magdalene came and she followed Him till his death and Resurrection, Jesus would have taught in this synagogue as he went into synagogues all around the sea of Galilee including Capernaum and Bethsaida

then we went to a shopping centre and bought food for tomorrow because tomorrow is Yom Kipur (day of atonement) and nothing is open all day in fact we cant drive tomorrow so we will have a rest day and do our memorial meeting I was hoping to get a boat and do it on the sea but we cant get a boat because of yom-kipur

our shopping done we took it back to our hotel and headed for capernaum only to find that they were shutting already for yom kipur so we went down to the lake beside caperaum and read the sermon on the mount which Jesus spoke to the people from a hill just behind us overlooking the sea

bethsaida was our next site but we went to a newly excavated site near the sea. a more likely site than the traditional site which is up the hill bethsaida was a fishing village

the next stop was The top of a hill near Kursi where we had lunch under olive trees overlooking the sea of Galilee from here you can sea the whole of the sea, it was here that Jesus healed legion and the swine Ran into the sea.

we then had to head straight back to tiberias to be back by 430 because yom kipur starts but we completed our circuit of the sea and got back by 4

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Photos

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Magdalla synagogue

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the wall built up to stop the romans

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magdalah ruins

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Galilee at capernaum

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new excavations at Bethsaida possibly

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on the mountain above Kursi where we had lunch

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view of the sea of Galilee