From the Peak to the Sea

So what’s a more exciting start to the day than climbing down a sheer cliff? Watching your dean climb down a sheer cliff. =D

I kinda look like I’m falling over, huh? Haha. That’s the Sea of Galilee behind us.

Beginning the hike to the Cliffs of Arbel

Apparently, when Herod came back to establish his authority as king of the Jews, he came down these cliffs in a basket and yanked off the resistant folk with a hook.

There’s Dean Blewett!

Hang loose! ...Or please don’t. Really.

It was a pretty normal hike the rest of the way down once we got past the cliffs.

Caves along the way

The cows of Bashan! Or, actually, a cow of Arbel, but “cows of Bashan” is just more fun to say.

After the thrilling hike down Arbel, we stopped at a reconstructed village from the 3^rd or 4^th century. However, as conservative of a culture as it was back then, very few changes were made to the village since the 1^st century. So, it was a rather accurate depiction of the type of village Jesus would have grown up in.

A tile mosaic created by some children to commemorate the 60^th anniversary of the state of Israel. The three-pronged base is the traditional menorah from the Temple, rather than the solid Roman base usually depicted.

The pomegranate wasn’t ripe yet, but it had already split open. I tried it—VERY sour.

Nick is trying to pick up a roof-roller, and Jesse doesn’t want to watch. Haha. Basically, the residents would press down the mud roofs with these heavy rollers.

A hobbit squat hole =P

Inside the home

These schoolgirls were yelling at me in Hebrew to take their picture

Hello, me! =P

Stewie is such a fruit sometimes. Hahaha.

The hill where Jesus cast the demons out of the man and into the pigs that ran crazy into the Sea of Galilee.

Aubrey gave us another not-ice-cream surprise: a pit stop by the Jordan River!

Don’t worry, we didn’t go behind the barricade—just around. =P

I’m really not ordained to do this. The water did feel very nice though—not too cold, but just cool enough.

We made another stop at some ruins in Chorazin—a region VERY good for growing crops so long as you can get the rocks cleared. The remains were from the 4^th-8^th century, after the Barcoktha (sp?) Revolt when a flock of Jews fled to this city.

I’m pretty sure the sign next to the says “No Passage.” Oh well, Aubrey encourages free exploration. Haha.

Work it!

It’s difficult to stay awake on the bus, even when you have plenty of work to do.

Finally we made a swim stop in the Sea of Galilee.

Man, we’re just breaking rules left and right today, aren’t we?

Dr. Blewett getting his caffeine fix.

It’s hard to believe tomorrow is our last day out in the field!