Sea of Galilee and Nazareth

Our Sea of Galilee tour was a private tour, with just the 4 of us, with tour guide Naftali Shoshani.

We started our day with a drive to Megiddo, known under it's Greek name as Armageddon. We drove there via Route 65, through a gloomy light rain ...seemed appropriate for the venue.  We listened to Naftali mostly tell ancient and ominous stories of war in the area.  He quoted the Book of Revelations, Chapter 16, verse 16 to us "And they gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon."

Not only would Naftali be giving us a history lesson today but we'd also be breaking down many words, for their core meanings.

Along the way he explained that their land is blessed with 7 foods ...olives, grapes, figs, dates, pomegranate, wheat, barley.  And in bible times desert milk was goat cheese and honey was made of dates.

Naftali recommended reading James Michener 'The Source' and I hope to read it soon.

Megiddo lies somewhere in between Egypt and Mesopotamia on the Eerron Pass. Because of this strategic location, Megiddo was the site of several historical battles. Megiddo is mentioned in Ancient Egyptian writings, when Egypt waged war upon the city in the 15th century BC. The battle is described in detail, with the word Megiddo probably being broken down for it's meaning, in the hieroglyphics found on the walls of an Egyptian temple.

There we watched a film, walked the ruins and then walked through long tunnel with a steep staircase, dug in 9th century BCE!, to bring water into their fortress there. The tunnel was a bit of a white knuckle event for Ran.  As we exited the tunnel Naftali met us there with the car and forced us to eat the white mustard plant.   He also pointed out the Mediterranean Red bud or Judas trees.


From there we drove to Nazareth and had a coffee at a small but beautiful little spot there called the Rosemary Cafe. It seemed like a type of trendy, yuppie hangout you might find in California.

We saw a young guy there who has created a backpacker adventure company called "The Jesus Trail", where I believe they have identified, groomed and guided hikers from Nazareth to Capernaum. I believe I saw this featured in cnn.com previously.
How incredible would that be to make that trek.

"He left Nazareth and went to live in Capharnaum by the sea" (Gospel of Matthew 4:13)




We visited the Greek Orthodox St Gabriel ...church of the spring.



Then we walked through the colorful city of Nazareth.





The wall graffiti was from an artist, Naji al-Ali, who was famous for the 'Handala' cartoon. Handala was known to carry the voice of Palestine at the time and is still a symbol of Palestine today.  Sadly, the artist was assassinated in the 1980s in London, at the newspaper office he worked at. 

We went into the Church of Annunciation (cave of Mary).

Naftali said we were "connecting the stories" but I couldn't help but notice that nobody mentioned Joseph. Nobody!

We continued to walk through the streets. We had olives from a street vendor. Walked through the market alleys. Visited an old coffee shop and an old grocery.








Finally Nalfali asked us about where we'd like to eat.  He said "would we rather have a kind of fast food gyro-type shawarma sandwich here in the city or drive just outside of Nazareth to a really nice restaurant I know of ?"  I asked him if it was a trick question.  I mean I know he was wondering if we wanted authentic street food but the right answer seemed so obvious.  And to go to Naftali's restaurant recommendation definitely turned out to be the right answer.  Besides..."can anything good come from Nazareth" (John 1:46)

So we drove out of Nazareth for great lunch at 'the oven' (Altanur).  It was another '14 dish'-type experience. Just some phenomenal flavors...and it was attached to a gas station!


The weather improved throughout the day and by the time we drove up to the Sea of Galilee, it was beautiful out.  We drove by the fortress looking cliffs of Mount Arbel.  I didn't know the name until we returned home.






Our first stop was Mount of Beatitudes.  This is believed to be the hill where Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount.






Naftali brought a Bible with and Kevin volunteered to read there...

   Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
   Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
   Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
   Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
   Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
   Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
   Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
                                                                                           (Matthew 5:3-9)

It was a nice moment, with a real feeling for the message Jesus delivered there.
The truly fortunate people are not those who have money, power, popularity or fame but those who are blessed with what is important in God's kingdom.

From there we drove to the north end of the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum ...also known as Tell Hum, Khirbet Karazeh, Bethsaida, Capharnaum, Chorazin, Kefar Nahum, Kafarnaum, Kefar Tanhum, Talhum, Tanhum and then the lesser known, of Petersville.

Jesus made Capernaum his home during the years of his ministry.   Peter, Andrew, James and John were fishermen living in the village.  Matthew, the tax collector there.

We saw the remains of a 4th-century synagogue, with some beautiful stone carvings.

There was excavation area showing the layout of a 1st-century city there. And a modern octagonal Catholic church is there.  It looks somewhat like a spaceship.  It was built over the remains of a 5th-century octagonal Byzantine church. The Byzantines constructed their church directly
on top of the walls of, I'm guessing, an octagonal house, with the aim of preserving what they believed was, the ruins of the House of Peter.






We left there driving south next to the Sea of Galilee, on route 90.  Naftali said it was the longest road in Israel, going north into Lebanon and south down along the Dead Sea and into Egypt.

 He spoke about the origin of the word "orientation".  It is to look for the sun as a reference in the east, towards the "orient".


We were beginning to feel like word smiths at this point.  It reminded me of the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding..."da root of da word".


We had time to listen to Naftali tell us many more yarns about Jewish history.  Stories of antiquity, as well as current events.  He tried to explain the ongoing Syrian civil war but it's really difficult to understand it without knowing their cultures, where the people came from, who conquered who in the past and just  thousands of years worth of disagreements.  And it sounds like there are many different armies or groups involved.  When he provided some details, it's hard to believe the people involved in this war wouldn't have difficulty understanding who and why they are fighting.


During our drive back to the Daniel Hotel in Herzliya we saw some incredible cloud formations.  I started to feel like they might have more meaning in the holy land ?  It sure felt like they did at the time.

It looked as though a giant magic lantern was forming in the sky.  Possibly representing the Ark of the Covenant?

Then it really appeared as though the power grid had caught fire on the side of the road.  Ya hadda wonder..."we're not driving back to Armageddon are we ?"   But everything was fine...just our imagination.