Thoughts On [insert religious topic(s) here]

After a busy day yesterday, you would think we’d take it easy today. Nope. We left Jaffa Gate at 8 AM to pick up our rental car. We rented a tiny Hyundai Getz, bright red, probably to let all the locals know to watch out for tourist drivers. Our plan was to meet Jacky and Nancy at the rental place and drive down to Beit Guvrin, a location famous for its large caves. Jac’line had been to the caves twice before and wanted all of us to experience them.

Our Hyundai Getz at Beit Guvrin

With my GPS in hand, we started driving out of the busy Old City and towards Beit Guvrin. Within the first couple of minutes I got us off-course but I quickly got the hang of the GPS program and we got ot the caves with no other major issues. The drive took about 45 minutes but along the way, we got to see the landscape of Israel from a perspective other than a tour bus.

The caves are in a national park located in the middle of the Judean Desert, south of Tel Aviv. We were given a map by the park guide and drove around the park, visiting a couple of different ruins that functioned as underground cisterns and underground storage areas for sacrificial doves. The caves for doves are now home to many pigeons and I was fortunate to not get hit by any of their “aerial projectiles.” After seeing many different ruins over the last two weeks, these were getting to be a bit mundane.

We stopped at an awning and had lunch. Jac’line and I brought leftovers from Café Aroma. Mmmm Good!!! The brief rest provided us all with some reprieve from the oppressive heat. Bear in mind that we are practically out in a desert exploring these ruins. Furthermore, we were the only ones in the park as far as we could tell. We didn’t see another person until the very end.

After lunch, we explored tow additional ruins that were burial tombs decorated with mosaics and paintings. If I recall, the burial tombs were from the 2^nd or 3^rd century CE. They were distinguished by the mosaics in each. The first cave had a mosaic of musicians and the second had a mosaic of Apollo.

Myself in one of the Sidonian graves

We all thought that this was the extent of the caves, but Jac’line had saved the best for last. As we drove around to the park entrance, off to the right were some hills and ridges that we didn’t notice on the way in. As we drove up to them, they got a bit bigger, but still nothing too impressive. We got out and walked towards them.

Leading Up to the Bell Caves

The path initially led under a couple of overhangs in the rocks that looked like they had been carved out by man. The further we walked, the bigger the hills in front of us got until finally we arrived at the Bell Caves. These massive caves went back for at least 500 yards into the mountainside, ancient quarries for builders in the region. They were probably 100 feet high with holes at the top allowing in beams of light that illuminated the enormous man-made cave system. These pictures will attempt to do the caves justice. (Notice the size of the people in them)

Notice the size of Jacline in the back

We headed back to Jerusalem, thoroughly amazed at what we had seen. Jac’line shared that the first time she ever went to the caves, there was no national park, and she just sort of stumbled upon them in the desert. I couldn’t imagine just running across these caves in the middle of nowhere. When we stopped to fill up on gas, we saw 8-packs of 1.5L water bottles. For those Anona-ites reading this, the pack was 19 NIS. :-0 Now we are well-hydrated.

Back at Jerusalem, we parked the car by the Zion Gate. I had started feeling sick on the ride home probably from exhaustion given the busyness of the last two days and all the walking. However, we noticed that St. Peter in Gallicantu was about five minutes away so we walked down a steep road to the church-all the while aware that we’d have to walk back up.

A bit of background: despite recent archaeological evidence that has uncovered Caiaphas’ house inside the Old City of Jerusalem, St. Peter in Gallicantu is the traditional place believed to be not only where Caiaphas lived but also where Jesus was held before his trial before Pilate and the place where Peter denied Jesus. The Latin word “Gallicantu” means rooster, so the name of the church is St. Peter and the Rooster. Inside the church, you can see a prison that would have been used to detain and torture captives brought to be tried before the high priest.

Following a long walk back uphill and through the Old City to our hostel, I lay on my bed and felt the worst I’ve felt all trip. I willed myself to go into the city and find food. Walking at a snail’s pace, I got over to the Jewish quarter and found a falafel stand. A few shekels later, I was holding the greatest Israeli invention since the Temple in my hands. However, unlike the Temple, the falafel was gone in about 5 minutes.

I was going to stay and write for an hour or so but felt like I might be sick, so I went back to the room and lay down. We had made plans to meet Jacky and Nancy at Café Aroma for a farewell dinner at 7:45 so I slept till then.

The dinner was really really good. We all got a lot of food and had a wonderful farewell meal that left all of us very filled. I had a tuna sandwich, trying to get some protein so I would feel better. It didn’t really work that well, but it was the best meal I’d had since leaving the group.

We got back to the hostel, said goodbye to Nancy and Jacky, and went to bed. Ah… Bed…

Shalom,

Mat