More of the Galilean sites

Somehow, when I picture the Sea of Galilee and the fish nets laid out and the people gathering, I picture sandy beaches. Not so! The shores are actually quite rocky. We had considered going for a boat ride like the one you can see in the distance in this picture but we just felt like we had done enough. The drive was long and the crowds were sometimes a bit oppressive.

 The Mount of Beatitudes, supposedly where Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount, was nice. There has been a church built there (a little too elaborate for my taste but I know others worship differently) but the gardens around it are very peaceful. Placards with each Beatitude are scattered throughout the landscape. If it is indeed where Jesus taught, it certainly didn't look at all like it does now.

 Since it reached lunchtime when we were at the north shore of the Galilee, we chose a small cafe to have something to eat. It was quite lovely, the food was excellent, the weather couldn't have been better, and the company just made it perfect.

Not exactly what you might picture....

As I have mentioned, James and Susanne have been patient, generous, well-informed guides. James drove Russ and me, Janet and Bruce, and Susanne nearly 3 hours to the north end of the Sea of Galilee. The general landscape as we neared the Sea of Galilee changed from rocky, barren wilderness to lovely green plants, groves, and villages. At the very north end is Capernaum

a village mentioned in the New Testament a number of times. Today it's a narrow small city with modern cafes and stores- well, modern by Israeli standards.

 This is what is left of the New Testament village of Capernaum- not quite as I pictured it.

 The remains of the house Peter supposedly lived in has now had a synagogue built over it.

Over the centuries, there have been many different people with many different ideas as to where things happened and how to "preserve" them. The sites where Jesus was are just riddled with rumors and conflicts. Millions of people, some faithful pilgrims, some just curious tourists, visit these sites despite the ongoing tension and occasional armed conflicts.

Biblical Sites

Unlike Egypt whose primary source of water is the Nile, there are springs and underground sources of water in Israel. In ancient Jerusalem, there was a tunnel built by King Hezekiah to bring water from a spring outside the city walls to a pool inside the walls where the citizens could access it more easily. The tunnel was chiseled out of rock started by workers at each end who, miraculously to us in contemplating doing this without any modern equipment, met. It is open to tourists who need to bring a flashlight or two because it is absolutely dark, for about 500 yards under the city. Here is James, leading the way with a headlamp on.

 The flash on the camera was able to light up enough to give an idea of what the tunnel looked like, although the picture is a little out of focus. The water on the floor of the tunnel ranges from ankle to mid-thigh deep.

 The next day we had the Browers with us to tour Bethlehem and Herodium. Here is Bruce descending into where, traditionally, the stable where Jesus was born is reserved. Bethlehem is now a crowded, busy town like all the other towns or settlements in Israel. Over the centuries and through countless conflicts, the buildings have been destroyed and rebuilt so that much of what was here at the time of Jesus or the Romans is layers down, way below where buildings today sit.

 Herodium was just one of the magnificent things Herod the Great built. By the way, he is NOT the Herod who attempted to kill Jesus. This Herod was at least one generation earlier. Not too far out of Jerusalem, he had a summer palace built with a theater and Roman bath. The ruins are still being excavated. It was so helpful to have maps and small models to look at to give us an idea what it looked like originally. Here we all are, except Russ who is taking the photo, trying to figure out what we are seeing the ruins of.

Making music

This is the carillon tower of the YMCA in Jerusalem. The missionaries who can't be called missionaries who serve in the BYU Jerusalem Center play the bells in this tower once a week and usually have a group of students who come to take turns playing a song or two during the noon hour. The students were out on a field trip so James and Susanne arranged for Russ and me to have an opportunity to play the bells-heard throughout a neighborhood of Jerusalem. 

As you can see, despite experimenting on the "practice bells" in the room- a set up just like the real one but it doesn't play the actual bells outside- we were quite intent as we played so we wouldn't make a mistake while hundreds of people outside could hear! I played the melody and Russ played the chord root on a couple of duets. Russ played a Broadway musical number solo as well. And I played a classical number duet with the BYU center organist.

 After playing, we climbed up to where the bells were. They are a bit dusty!

 The view from the bell tower is wonderful! Just about the center of this picture you can see a building with lots of arched windows near the top of the hill. That's the BYU Jerusalem Center.

Religious/political issues

Most of what our Egyptologists talked to us about was ancient history. However, they were open to questions about more modern things. At the end of our Nile cruise, we arrived at the High Dam or Aswan Dam and Ahmed talked to us about more recent events in his country.
As he told us about Anwar Sadat, a courageous man who determined to make peace with as many of his neighbors as possible, I was struck by the likeness to a courageous leader in America's history. Although talking to Israel and entering a more peaceful association with it offered an alternative to the death and destruction of war and the possibility of working together constructively, there were those who hated him for what he was doing enough to justify assassinating him. So it was with Abraham Lincoln. He was courageous and determined to maintain the integrity of this United States and did all in his power to hold it together. Hero though he was, there were some who hated him enough to plan his demise.
Egypt is mainly desert which supports very little to no life except for where it clings tenaciously along the sides of the Nile River. But the Nile has been the source of destruction, too. As we visited temples and monuments thousands of years old, the guides would point out where the floods of the Nile had caused destruction in every place. On the other hand, every 3-4 decades there will be a major drought. A dam was built, called the Lower Dam, but it was not large enough to control the full fluxes of this huge river. Nasser planned and built a High Dam, or Aswan Dam. As anyone could see, damming up all that water caused permanent flooding in one large area. Nasser Lake is the largest manmade lake in the world. Under the water is the remains of several villages. The residents of those villages were given funds to purchase alternative property elsewhere. Despite that, people in the upper Nile region (southern Egypt) resent Nasser's great plan that has benefitted all of Egypt while erasing their personal homes. There were even some ancient temples that were carefully moved beyond the shores of the lake. It was done with the help of other countries. The dam itself is not at all like most of the dams I have seen in the US. Instead of a tall vertical cement wall, it is a wide immense pile of rock, sand, and cement. As our guide showed it to us and told us about the Soviet Union's help, he sounded almost apologetic probably due to the fact that the Soviet Union and the United States have not always had the best of relationships. As we walked around taking pictures and looking at all of it, I had a chance to talk a little with Ahmed. I told him about my observation of the similarity between Lincoln and Sadat. And I told him that I was glad Egypt was able to accomplish constructive things for the benefit of their country with the aid of other countries no matter WHO they were. I expressed my sorrow over the high cost of war. As we have toured places in Europe and learned the history of war, it has constantly impressed me with how expensive all of that destruction and rebuilding has been. How can any civilization advance when held in a rut of simple survival and rebuilding? It would be so much more beneficial to everyone to work together to cause constructive advancements than to compete and destroy then struggle to survive.
This first photo is from the top of the dam looking to the southeast showing one of the temples that was moved.

The second picture is my handsome son and grandson looking at the dam and lake.

The third photo is again looking south, up the Nile, at the vastness of Nasser Lake (called simply "the Lake" by locals who resent Nasser's construction).

The last photo is looking north to show the hydroelectric works and the controlled size of the Nile as it wends its way north. As you can see, the dam is not much vertical but a massive dam like a beaver dam in a stream would be.

As we have travelled through Israel I have pondered again how destructive we humans can be. In this area, differences in religion seems to be the primary cause for constant stress. There are numerous sects of Christianity who disagree who should be in control of various sites. There are numerous Jewish sects who disagree about the same issue as well as who is most pious. There are numerous Muslim sects with the same problem. Rather than seeking God's will to know how He would have them live, they resort to their own interpretations and fight with each other. An American woman angered an Orthodox Jew because she looked into his face when they nearly collided walking on a sidewalk. He cursed her for being immodest by looking at him when she is not his wife nor related to him. What is the point in that?? Can we not find any way to work out differences? I pray for the "great experiment" as Benjamin Franklin referred to our country. I pray that we can continue to live together peacefully even if we argue and politicize. I pray that we can be tolerant and patient and forgiving. I pray that we can all come to recognize the existence of God and seek to understand Him and His will for ALL of His children then have a desire to assist in His great work to "bring to pass the immortality and eternal life" of all of His children.

Just for fun

We have experienced many modes of travel in the last couple of weeks. Maybe some people might have expected us to ride a camel. We certainly had opportunities to do so. We rode a camel 12 years ago in Jordan and once was enough! Our Egyptian tour guides were really nice guys. They would occasionally provide us with some little treat when we might be in need of refreshment and they really made an effort to make our tour as fun and varied as possible, despite the plethora of ancient ruins/temples to look at. The day we saw the temples of Edfu and Kom Ombo, we got there in horse drawn carriages.

Russ and I mentioned to Ahmed, our guide when on the boat, that we have been married for 44 years. Although our anniversary was way back in August, he spread the word to the ship's crew who feted us with happy anniversary messages. We were surprised at dinner with a cake and a chorus of drums and singing to wish us a happy wedding anniversary. Then when we returned to our room, we found it festooned with toilet paper and linen decorations along with a typed page saying "Happy Wedding Anniversary". It was so fun!

 It's a little hard to tell in the photo but the man made of towels on the bed is holding the typed paper and wearing Russ's hat. His face is made from water bottle caps. The green sprinkled on the hearts made of towels is mint leaves. Herb tea is pretty big here- loved it!

This last picture is sitting on the top deck as we went through the locks. On each side there were people shouting to us. We found lots of people who wanted to be friendly. We felt sad that we had to rush by all the vendors because they were just too intense and once you stopped or even made eye contact or smiled, you would get swarmed! Russ and I would have loved to talk to them. The guy that drove our horse carriage was very nice and we got to talk to a couple of little kids. They all loved the chance to speak English and often commented that they "loved America". It's really not like the impression we get of Egypt or the Middle East watching the news.

Shopping

On the cruise ship traveling down the Nile, I had the most interesting shopping experience I have ever had. Due to their cultural traditions exacerbated by the lack of tourists to purchase their wares, the vendors in Egypt are what we would consider aggressive to the point of being obnoxious. They want to haggle for price and they won't take no for an answer. We were always relieved to return to the ship where we could get away from these pushy salesmen- or so we thought...
As we were sailing one day we were up on the top deck enjoying the pool and sun when we heard this loud "Halloo" coming from below on the water. I looked over the edge and saw two men in a small boat tied to the side of the moving ship. They had rowed vigorously to meet the relatively slow moving ship then attached themselves. They were not allowed to come aboard but could "do business" with the passengers. (I think I mentioned before that this ship could carry 140 passengers but at this time had only 21. The vendors had no way of knowing this. They just look at a large passing boat as a potential to have some income for the day.) So when I looked over the edge, one of the men shouted, "Hello pretty lady! I have something for you!" He held up a gallabia (however it might be spelled in English- basically a caftan) folded in a plastic package. I shouted politely, "No thank you." I had never had any intention of buying something. I was only curious as to who was trying to get whose attention. He said something like, "You will like this. It would be nice for you." Then he proceeded to make a ball of the package and heaved it up on the deck of the ship. I was a bit startled, picked it up, and looked at it- never taking it out of the package. I thought my response was sufficient when I said, "No. I could not wear this. It has too many decorations." It was bright red with lots of sequins and stuff- definitely not my style. So I asked how to get it back to him since I was afraid if I threw it back down it would end up in the water. Rather than help me figure out how to return the one he had thrown, he proceeded to select another one and threw that up to me! I said, "NO! Please don't throw up any more!" But, to be polite, I took it out of the package and looked at it. I actually kind of liked it so I unfolded to try it on, partly to see if it fit and partly because I really thought it would probably be too small which would provide me a good excuse not to buy it. However, it fit. I asked, "How much?", just out of curiosity when I found that it fit okay. Instead of answering me, he pulled out another package and yelled, "For your husband!", and proceeded to heave that up on the deck as well. In a panic, I yelled, "Please, don't throw anything more!" Then I said I didn't know how to get the rejected caftan back to him nor did I know how to pay him. He said, "Come down here", pointing to the entrance to the ship at water level. I went to our room and got the money we agreed on, after considerable haggling and my repeatedly telling him I had NO Egyptian money, only American dollars. I put the $30 for the 2 caftans in the package with the sequined red caftan and went all the way down to the main deck. The kind ship employee at the reception desk took the package from me as he saw me look toward the little boat dragging beside the ship and he tossed it to the guy in the boat. I then turned to go back to my room to put away the caftans and explain it all to Russ. I could hear the guy in the boat yelling, "Lady! Hey, lady! Come back!" I have no idea why he wanted me to come back. I like to think maybe he wanted to thank me but was afraid he might throw something more at me so I never found out what he wanted. I think maybe the ship employee told him to go away. You can't see Russ's caftan in this photo but you can see mine. Isn't it lovely?

By the way, just as an example of the difference in economies, I bought two lovely hand-embroidered caftans in Egypt for $30. Last night here in Jerusalem, we went out for dessert with James, Susanne, Bruce and Janet Brower. It was a lovely dessert at an outdoor cafe. The bill, including 3 glasses of water and 3 glasses of cider and a tip, was $100. But it was lovely and delicious!