We drove on past Bethlehem to Herodion. I don't think I'd ever heard of Herodion before, but it should be one of the wonders of the world. It is a gigantic artificial mountain built by Herod the Great. It looms much larger than Disney World's Space Mountain. It looks likke a lopped off volcano. Our bus was able to drive half way up the mountain and we hiked the rest of the way up. As we hiked we saw a huge stack of the large round rocks that they used as a defense system. The mountainside is steep. They would roll down around a hundred of those rocks towards the enemy struggling to get to the top. To see just ONE of those stones coming down would be terrifying!.
We hiked up to the palace that was hidden in the crater recess of the mountain. It served as a summer resort and a retreat in case of attack. Originally there were two stories underground and five above ground. Herod and his family lived on the top floor. The ruins included three bath houses, cisterns, escape tunnels, three towers, a sinagogue and a ritual bath. Servants would haul the water up for the baths and other needs. Herodion was built between 23 and 20BC. The synagogue and ritual baths were built by Zealots in 66 AD. Jesus surely must have known about this place!
Looking down from the mountain you can see below the remains of a swimming/boating pool he built that measured about 230 feet by 150 feet! It was also a great view of Bethlehem and surrounding areas.
We drove back through the countryside, watching the shepherds and their flocks, and all 250 of us had lunch at a banquet hall in Bethlehem. There we heard the testimony of a Christian Palestinian who was an active atheist in college, but met God through an amazing experience of awaking paralyzed and thus beginning his search for truth. All of us sang a few Christmas carols, which sounded very beautiful and were very meaningful in that setting.
After lunch the whole group had a shopping venture with assertive vendors. I bought nothing because I don't like souvenir shopping. Later I realized I should have shopped while I had the opportunity.
From there we circled around the huge walls of a refugee camp in existence since 1948. We listened to Palestinian spin instead of our usual Jewish Israeli spin. I wish I could know the truth and the insides of the refugee situation. The walls were covered with interesting grafitti. (I'll try to post a photo later.)
We went on to a Jewish museum, but were in a time crunch. They had a huge scale model of ancient Jerusalem, which was helpful to orient us to all we are seeing and to visualize Jerusalem at different stages of its history. Our guide talked just a bit too long, so the museum closed before we could see the Dead Sea Scrolls.
I was extremely tired during our evening debrief time with the Latinos, led by Mark. I bowed out and went to our room early (9:30) and slept like a rock. Between all the activity PLUS translating all day long, it has been very tiring.
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