Israel final posting - I hope!

This should be the final posting about our trip to Israel in October. I hope it hasn't been to 'bitty' to follow and that the photos have given you at least a taster of the range of sites we visited and things we did, during the 10-day trip.

Our final day took us to Meggido, a huge archeological site dating back 6000 years, of 20 superimposed cities. It was one of the walled cities that Joshua took, on entering the Promised Land and later King Ahab had stables here.

I felt that this stone feeding trough completely shattered my concept of the manger that Jesus could have been laid in:

This stepped water shaft (with Andy climbing up it) and tunnel , also dated from King Ahab, the water being supplied by a hidden spring which helped the city withstand future invasion:

But our main reason for visiting Meggido was to see the place where the final battle of Armageddon will take place, as told in Revelation.

Bob Edmiston, Chairman of Christan Vision, led this teaching and spoke about the 'end times' a fascinating topic.

The Jezreel Valley is vast, crossed by arterial highways from the north, south and east. It is bordered by Mount Gilboa, Mount Tabor and Mount Carmel. Tabor is the highest mountain in Israel, traditionally the site for the transfiguration of Jesus, told in both Matthew and Mark. Carmel is the mountain where God consumed Ezekiel's sacrifice in a dramatic way, winning a decisive battle against the prophets of Baal. And Gilboa is the place where David lamented the death of both Saul and Jonathan.

This photo doesn't really begin to convey its size and significant location:

From Meggido we travelled to the ancient sea port of Acre also called Akko in the Bible. It was a major location for the Crusaders of the 12-13th centuries to set up a knight's city. Few would deny the extensive damage that the Crusader's did to the Christian Church in their zealous quest to retake the Holy Land, but now, hundreds of years later, we recognise their contribution in defending certain sites for later generations to visit.

In Akko, we saw enormous well-preserved vaulted Knight's Halls...

...and some of us followed one-way tunnels which reemerged at this colourful market, outside of the crusader city. Finding our way back to the rest of the group was a little tricky.

The last city we visited was Caesarea, yet another huge archeological site from the time of King Herod the Great. This copy of one of the finds, made us smile...

...and the sea reclaiming Herod's palace was a stark reminder of the transitory nature of the great Roman Empire...

This Roman theatre has been restored for use as a concert venue...

...and a Japanese group demonstrated the amazing accoustics:

I thought it interesting that we had started our tour in Jaffa, where Peter received a vision to take the Gospel to the Gentiles, and ended it in Caesarea, where he came to visit Cornelius, who became the first Gentile (non-Jew) Christian.

Caesarea was also the place where Paul was imprisoned and appealed to Rome to hear his case, making his final journey from Caesarea to Rome.

We had a much to contemplate while we watched our final sunset.