Monday, April 23, 2018

Beit Shen and Jericho

Our next site was Beit Shen or Scaropolis (or something like that).  It was a Roman city, one of the Decapolis, the ten Roman cities in the Holyland region.


This is a model of the city.
Looking out over the city.
The hill overlooking the city is a tell.  Civilizations built one on top of the other.
The ancient mosaics were still there from 2,000 years.
Our guide told us that although this city existed in Jesus time, He probably never walked in it.  Observant Jews would stay out of such places.  They were dens of sin.
Another mosaic.
These pillars have been put back in place. They all fell down in an earthquake.
This was below the floor of the bath house.  Hot water was directed in here.  The stumpy pillars held up the floor.
The bath house from another angle.
The dark stones are basalt.
Roman public bathrooms.  Use your imagination.
More 2000 year old mosaics.
I don't know what this says.
If I make it bigger, is it easier to read?
I wonder about the blue and the red stones in the mosaics.
More pieces of mosaic.
This was the red light district.
The Roman road looked as good as when it was built.  The rise in the middle directed water and kept the traffic apart.
These columns were not yet set up.
Some of the guys on the pilgrimage in the know told me that the tree at the top of the tell on the left is on the cover of the Jesus Christ Superstar album.
All the columns fell the same way in the earthquake.
When we left Beit Shen it was still Saturday and things were still closed.  Shabbat.  The fertile valley was a place where much of the food of Israel is produced.
There were fish farms, vegetable farms and bananas.
The bananas and vegetables were covered in plastic to preserve the moisture.

Date palms in the valley.
Vegetable farming in a region of very little water.
Because it was shabbat we had trouble finding any place for lunch.  The landscape became more arid as we headed farther and farther south.
We saw Bedouins raising goats and sheep along the way.
We tried to get lunch at this  petrol station.  No food, but camel rides were offered.  We took pictures.
Sitting down the camel doesn't look so mean or large.
Finally we went to Jericho, part of the occupied territories.  The restaurant had some peacocks out in front.
There was yet another camel.  It was offered for rides.
We were not the camel riding type of pilgrims.
This was all we saw of Jericho since it wasn't really part of our pilgrimage.
And it was still Christmas season there.  Jericho with a Christmas tree.

And that was only lunch.  We had another stop before we were done for the day, even though it was shabbat and most things were closed.

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