June 8, Sunday

After an extremely long and boring flight (actually 3 flights) Bryan and I have arrived here in Israel!

 It took a while for us all to make it through customs but then we changed into our hiking clothes there at the airport, boarded our bus, and headed out to our first biblical site.

A Manger: Mangers were used to hold water, not hay

It was the same location I visited just after arriving 2 years ago but as I expected I'm picking up more information this time and it will help cement what I already learned last time.


We visited Tel Gezar and sat at the entrance to what would have been the city at the time of Solomon.  City gates of this style (a main gate leads into a small room and then a second gate leads from that to the city) are called Solomon's gate because he (or his generals) designed this as a way to increase security for the city.  The defenders of the city could attack people trying to break into the city once they entered the first gate and were in the small room area.  There have only been 3 gate styles like this excavated.

It was in this small room area that people with business with the king or other leaders would come to meet with them because very few people were actually let into the city.

This was the only location we visited today, but at least it got us all out into the sun to start getting used to the time change.  It was a real challenge for us not to all fall asleep on the bus as we headed for our hotel.

Two camels along the road

We are staying in Asad for a few nights before moving on to Bethlehem so I expect to see new things tomorrow.  On the way here it refreshed my memory of the hilly barren countryside around here.  We saw more camels around than I remembered from last time.

Not too much else to report on unless you want to know about dinner (chicken, potatoes, and lots of cold and hot mixed vegetables).

Walking total for the trip so far: 2 miles.