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Standing on ruins of Archelaus 
This evening it is raining in Jerusalem, but the air is warm, and it feels good to be back in my room on campus enjoying the breeze after our two days of hiking in and around Galilee. We headed out early on Saturday, but after we had been in the bus not yet an hour, the mirror flew off, and we needed to wait for a replacement bus to come get us. On the upside, we broke down right next to "Archelaus" what is probably the remains of a palace built by Herod's son. So, at 8 AM in the rift valley we explored some ruins, and Melissa even found a bronze coin! We also met several shepherds on donkeys with big flocks of sheep and goats, and even though they didn't speak much English and we didn't speak much Arabic, we communicated some. One of the boys even let Dan ride his donkey around a bit. So it wasn't a wasted detour in the end!
Approaching some Bedouin and their herd
We visited Bethsaida near the Sea of Galilee, and two sites in upper Galilee, Kedesh and Baram. There we talked about first century Synagogues, and where the structure came from, and how it was possibly influenced by Roman Temples. The Roman sun temple at Kedesh is the best preserved Roman Temple in Israel, and all of the Palestine are, I believe.
Our last stop for the day was Omrit, where we saw the remnants of a temple to Emperor Augustus. There were some lovely frescoes to see.
Double sarcophagus at Kedesh
That night we went swimming in the Galilee, since our hotel was right on the shore. This morning also, I went for a quick dip around 6:15, it was lovely! Mostly no one was down on the beach, and it hadn't been light for very long. After breakfast we headed off to Gamala, or at least what has been called Gamala. We discussed the possibility that it may actually be "Solyma," which had a similar history of Gamala. Anyways, it was nice because although I had been there in 2014, I hadn't gone to see the ruins, only the waterfall. This time I was able to look around the site more. Afterwards, we ate lunch at Jotapata, and then hiked around to Cana. There was an awesome look into the Netopha valley, and it was neat to walk through the valley back to the bus and observe the similar landscape that Jesus would have been familiar with. at one point, we could see the hard path we walked on, bordered by stony ground, and afterwards thick thistles, and beyond a grain field of good soil.
I enjoyed the hike. This week ahead will be lots of work for papers and such, but next weekend we will be heading to Jordan, so I will try and keep up with that news.



Temple to Augustus at Omrit

View from Gamala

Richard observing a Mikvah at Gamalah 

View from Jotapata, towards the Beit Netopha Valley 

Black lily on the hill down from Jotopata

Within a cave at Cana 

Road leading from Jotopata to Cana 
View from Cana

Grain in the Beit Netopha valley

Pomegranate tree (the flowers) with olive trees behind, and Grape vines in the far distance.

This guy showed his horse off a bit for us, it was a really gorgeous horse! 

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