Tel Megiddo and around

I am very footsore tonight. We are staying in Tiberius with the Emmanuel community, but today was spent mostly at Tel Megiddo.  Tel is the Hebrew word for hill, so it means the hill of Megiddo. Megiddo was inhabited for roughly 4500 years from 5000 BC to 400 BC.  Megiddo was destroyed and rebuilt frequently,  so there are lots of layers (20-24 depending on the numbering).  Two of the layers were built by people we know, King Solomon and King Ahab. Ahab did a lot of building and was one of the more powerful kings of Israel, but also encouraged the worship of Baal, which is why he has a bad reputation.

The Tel

King Solomon's stables. They are neither stables (probably a warehouse or market)
 nor built by Solomon, but by Ahab.  The name still stuck.

After we got back, we went on a boat ride to the middle of the Sea of Galilee, which helped me realize how small of an area Jesus actually ministered to.  The Sea is the size of Lake Millac (where the Archdiocesan guys go camping every August), but Jesus would have really only been active in a quarter of the shore towns at first, since the other parts were pagan or Samaritan.

The whole of the Jewish coast

As I mentioned we are staying with the Emmanuel community, which is a lay movement that started in France (several students and alumni of SPS are involved with them). Because they are French, to celebrate Ephiany tonight we had king cake and James Stiles found the bean.

Hail King James the Owatonnan!

Tomorrow we are off to more archaeological sites, so I really hope I don't get blisters, or I will have to avoid swimming in the Dead Sea in a few days.

The door outside my room this morning.
 This should remove any sympathy you are feeling.