Photos

McDonalds is about 3 times as expensive and that is without cheese! Why? Jewish law doesn't allow them to mix beef and cheese. In Exodus 34:26 it says not to "boil a goat in it's mothers milk". The original meaning of this verse is believed to refer to the Lord prohibiting the Jews from participating in the pagan fertility ritual associated with this practice. Over time, to stay away from the fence, called "fence laws," the law was extended to interpret this passage to mean that you shouldn't mix meat with dairy. So they don't.

Netanya - 90% of all diamonds of the world are cut here. They have only 2 golf courses in Israel and they are both located here.

These pictures also show an aquarium center that Palestinians blew up a few years ago and was never rebuilt.

Some interesting bridge art along the way.

At the center of the city was a 4000 seat theatre that allowed for wild beasts or chariot races to take place. In front of that was the harbor for ships, to the south was the palace and another theatre, to the west was a huge bath house and still west, a place for a horse circus.

Close to the theatres were public toilets (see the men trying them out)

There were other detailed stone designs, like a sarcophagi (bone crusher casket).

To get water to the city, Herod had his architects design an aqueduct system to bring water in from 15 miles away. It dropped only 2 feet over the entire 15 mile stretch.

Caesarea mentioned in scripture:
Acts 10 - Cornelius lived here
Acts 21 - Phillip lived here
Acts 23 Paul was held for trial here
Acts 24 Paul imprisoned for 2 years here
Acts 25 Paul appeals to Rome from here

At the bottom of the mountain to the range was the yizreel valley, also known as Armageddon. Revelation 16:16. It's shaped like a triangle, 20 mile, by 20 miles, by 14 miles. It's very flat, open land - "The perfect battlefield" said Napoleon. Dozen's of battles have taken place here, including Joshua, Deborah, Gideon, & king Josiah.

That day, there was a smell of fire for some reason.

We entered the original gate entrance, saw the remains of fires that had burned the city walls, stable walls, and a huge silo for grain.

To the North was the valley of Armageddon and further North is Nazareth, to the south was distant Jerusalem. To the west is Mt. Gilboa that David cursed - 2 Samuel 1:21 "Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain, upon you, nor fields of offerings.."  To this day, the mountain is barren (notice barren mountain behind Megiddo hilltop).

The remains of Megiddo's water supply is evident. There is a well with 187 iron steps(not from Solomon's day) down to the spring. It used to have a natural opening from the outside, but the opening was closed so approaching enemies could not access it or keep the inhabitants of Megiddo from it's water during a war.

As scripture says, Solomon's wives encouraged him to worship other god's (I Kings 11:4 "his wives turned away his heart after other gods") and there is evidence of altars to foreign gods within the camp.

The most amazing colored one surrounds the story of the life of Dionysos, the Greek god of wine. We can also wonder why the gods were so well represented and the menorah also represented in the same room - sort of a mixture of Greek culture & Jewish faith within one place that the Sanhedrin called it's center for religious studies during 300BC. Shortly afterward, the city was destroyed by an earthquake and perhaps only reestablished years later with the crusaders.

The main corridor(street) has ruts in it for chariots and games that the soldiers played a form of dice on.

Digs are spaced out and archaeologist continue to unearth ancient ruins in Zippori. Several areas are roped off to the public while they search for clues of the past civilizations that lived here.

When we turned up the hill and went into Nazareth, the townsfolk stared at us as if to say "get out." We took a quick picture of the Church of the Annunciation(Brown triangle-dome shape), the supposed spot where the Angel Gabriel told Mary she would birth Jesus the Savior,... and then we took off. Brings new meaning to John 1:46.

We also drove by the church that was built where Jesus performed His first miracle at Cana (John 2:1 - Water to Wine).