Israel, the Holy Land
by Ray Freer
Entertainment Columnist
Israel, a land holy to many faiths, has always been a bucket list destination for my husband, Aubrey Nash, and myself. In Israel, anywhere you go you're confronted with history and ancient culture.
A pleasant walk along the beach from our hotel in Tel Aviv took us to Old Jaffa. Structures here date from before the time of Christ. We saw the home of Simon, the Tanner.
The Bible says this is where the Apostle Simon stayed as he preached.
Our first full day of touring was to Jerusalem. We started the day with a spectacular view of the Old City from the Mount of Olives. It is an iconic image, and the photo from there makes an amazing picture.
Then it was past the Garden of Gethsemane, into the city and the Western Wall of the Temple mound, also known as the wailing wall. There we donned kippahs (also called yarmulkes) and stuffed our written prayers into the cracks of the wall. It is as close as Jews can come to where the Temple of Solomon once stood.
We walked along the Via Dolorosa, the route supposedly taken by Jesus as he walked to his crucifixion site at a hilltop called Golgotha. Now the hilltop is cover by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and contains the tomb from where Christ's body was lain and resurrected.
Jerusalem is rich in sites associated with the life of Jesus, including the Upper Room where it's said the Last Supper occurred. It also has the traditional burial site of King David. Many of the sites are churches or synagogues, and respectful attire is required.
No shorts above the knee or bare shoulders. Also, at the Western Wall and King David’s tomb, men are on one side and women the other of a dividing fence.
Masada is another World Heritage site, and bucket list location. Once the site of a palace built by King Herod, it was later occupied by 960 Jewish rebels, fighting against the Roman control of Judea.
Famously, the Romans filled in a valley with rubble and built a ramp to assail the fortress with a siege engine. They breached the wall late one night in A.D. 74, and when they went in the next morning, they found that every man, woman, and child was dead of suicide, rather than to live as slaves of Rome.
At the foot of Masada is the Dead Sea, where the salinity is ten times that of the ocean. No sea life can survive in it, and it's impossible not to float. There are many resorts there as the mud baths and salt vapors are said to have curative powers. World-famous Ahava beauty products are made there, many with Dead Sea mud.
A highlight was seeing Petra in Jordan. You walk two miles into narrow canyon walls which open dramatically into the Treasury Building. It is a real “wow” moment when you first glimpse those buildings carved into solid sandstone cliffs, dating from the first century B.C.
It is a marvel of engineering how the city thrived with dams and water systems and incredible architecture until it was destroyed by an earthquake in 363 A.D. After that it became lost to the sands of time, except for a few Bedouin tribesmen, until it was rediscovered in 1815.
In Nazareth is the Church of the Annunciation, over the site of Mary’s house where the angel told her she would be the mother of the Son of God.
There also are the ruins of old Nazareth from 2,000 years ago, and just up the hill the ruins of the home she shared with Joseph and Jesus, under the church of St. Joseph.
We saw Cana, the site of Christ’s first miracle when he turned water into wine.
Then, on to Capernaum on the shores of the Sea of Galilee which was Jesus home and where His ministry first started. There we saw the ruins of Peter’s house, where Christ raised Peter's mother-in-law from the dead, and the Mount of the Beatitudes where He preached His iconic sermon of Love and Peace.
The Roman city of Tiberius was along the way as was the Jordan River Baptismal site. Aubrey and I waded where Christ was baptized by John and had our toes nibbled by the fish. It was a great day of walking in Christ’s footsteps.
Whether you're religious or not, Israel is rich in history and culture, and worth the trip.
Copyright The Gayly. 10/7/2018 @ 11:08 a.m. CST.