The Laughlins

Shortly before going to California, Mark, Seth, Craig, Todd, Tom, and I went to Mamre and Hebron in search of the archaeological ruins at Mamre (presumably left by Herod...first) and also for the hill called Beit Zur (mentioned in the Maccabees). Mamre was easy to find, and we walked around the large walled enclosure (in the snow) for a while. The Hebron area is at a higher elevation than Jerusalem, so there was actually a little more snow there than there was in Jerusalem. In many of my pictures, you can see the terraced hillsides and grape vines covered in snow. After Mamre, we drove around looking for Beit Zur. The problem with finding some of these places is that they are no longer called by the same names. So (in a Land Cruiser) we roamed streets filled with goats and people returning from their Friday prayers in the mosques. Craig (who spoke a bit of Arabic), asked a number of people if they had heard of the locations. We ended up kicking up some mud and snow to get to the top of a hill to lookout and see if anything looked familiar. We drove around town (in a big circle), asked more people, and ended up at a sage farmer's house drinking sage tea and eating biscuits with him (typical Arab hospitality gesture - tea/coffee). Once we got conclusive answers as to where Beit Zur was, we drove there, only to discover that it was the first hill that we had been on as our lookout point. It was a fun day, and I found some interesting pottery at Mamre (with red markings). For a great website all about the site we visited in Mamre, check out http://www.netours.com/jrs/2003/Byzantine_Mamre.htm