The Laughlins

As many of you know, Mark and I went to the north of Israel for five days earlier in February. We had been planning this trip for a while as our "gift" to each other, so we were very excited about it. Because I took so many pictures, I am going to do a place-by-place recap of the trip over a number of posts. So this will be the first of many posts, however, Blogger only lets me upload two pictures at a time, so it takes forever to do a post now.

We left on a Sunday morning. Our good friend Audra spent the night with us on Satuday night at our apartment on what I fondly call "her bed" (our sofa), because we like to have her around. We had stayed up until some crazy hour of the morning, so we were beat when we had to wake up again by 6:30 to get the rental car. It was POURING rain when we left, and we drove along the main highway, through Tel Aviv and on towards Caesarea. Our main goal was to hit the coast on the first day. We arrived in Caesarea just as there was a break in the rain, which was perfect for pictures. We still wore our rain gear, and by the time we left it was pouring again, so it was good that I had a big rain jacket to cover my camera! I was especially excited to see Caesarea because it is on the coast (which I love), and there are a lot of visible ruins and remains there, which isn't the case with some other "archaeological sites" in Israel.

We stopped on a beach down from the ruins first, where you can see the factory towers down the way. It was very windy there, and the wind was whipping waves and spray inland, so that is probably why we got even wetter.







I had fun spinning donuts or brodies in the sand in our little Hyundai Getz. I asked Mark if he wanted to drive, but he didn't at all, so I had lots of fun driving the whole trip. I love driving. I miss driving. I miss my Maxima. Here is a video of me spinning in the car. Don't tell Avis. I think Mark mostly got the dashboard in the video anyways :) Anways, back to our trip...


For a short history, I am going to use Todd Bolen's BiblePlaces summary interspersed with my pictures of Caesarea:

"Caesarea Maritima is also known as “Caesarea as near Sebastos,” Caesarea of Straton, Caesarea of Palestine, Caesarea Palaestinae, Colonia Prima Flavia Augusta Caesariensis, Herodian Caesarea, Horvat Qesari, Kaisariyeh, Kessaria, “Metropolis of the province Syria Palaestina,” Migdal Shorshon, Qaisariya, Qaisariyeh, Qaysariyah, Qesari, Qisri, Qisrin, Strato's Tower, Straton's Caesarea, Straton's Tower, Turris Stratonis"

"The Theater

Herod the Great also constructed a theater with a seating capacity of 3500. According to Josephus, this is where the death of Herod Agrippa occurred, as recounted in Acts 12. The theater was covered with a skin covering (vellum), and visitors probably brought cushions with them to soften the stone seats."















"Promontory Palace

Josephus called this a "most magnificent palace" that Herod the Great built on a promontory jutting out into the waters of Caesarea. The pool in the center was nearly Olympic in size, and was filled with fresh water. A statue once stood in the center. Paul may have been imprisoned on the grounds of this palace (Acts 23:35)."












"Herod's Harbor

This site was insignificant until Herod the Great began to develop it into a magnificent harbor befitting his kingdom. The harbor was built using materials that would allow the concrete to harden underwater. The three-acre harbor would accommodate 300 ships, much larger than the modern harbor existing today."









"The Aqueduct

The lack of fresh water at Herod's new city required a lengthy aqueduct to bring water from springs at the base of Mt. Carmel nearly ten miles away. In order that the water would flow by the pull of gravity, the aqueduct was built on arches and the gradient was carefully measured. Later Hadrian and the Crusaders would attach additional channels to Herod's aqueduct."






At some point near the other end of the harbor, my hat fell out of the pocket of my rain jacket, and I didn't realize it until we got to the parking lot. Our jeans were already soaked all the way through from the rain and and the spray, and I hadn't been able to see through my glasses for quite some time. We started retracing our steps, and Mark ran ahead and found my hat. My hero :) After Caesarea, we tried to get to Dor to see other ruins there, but we must have missed the turn off. We found it the next day, but that is another story for another post. We went into Haifa after Caesarea, and I will post pictures of our evening and dinner on the next blog.

As always, you can use my BiblePlaces link on the left side of my site to get to more links, resources, and info on Caesarea.

I just had to laugh when I read this quote in the Jerusalem Post today out of the mouth of an Israeli, so it is my quote of the week: "It is not in the Israeli character to follow the rules." ~Likud MK Gilad Erdan. Not too many outsiders could get away with making a "character" call on a population, or they would be in trouble.

This is my last pre-trip post (I promise). Unfortunately there is some sort of water leak in our building that is right under our apartment, so we have had to leave the apartment the last few days while they jackhammered our tiles out. We are still waiting for it to be fixed, but this is the first time that I have been at home with our regular Internet access in a while. All that to say, I had one more post that I wanted to put up before I started into our recent trip north.

Mark and I had a few Jerusalem daytrips that we have been wanting to take, and we managed to fit one in a few weeks ago. We took a bus just north of the German Colony and started by walking down through the Mishkenot Shaananim neighborhood. I have done a previous post on this area (see July archives on the sidebar) when my ulpan class took a fieldtrip there, so you can read the old post for more "history" information. All in all, it is a quiet, well-kept neighborhood in a more affluent part of Jerusalem that has hints of European flavor, so it is fun to walk through. We stopped at the bottom to look at Solomon's Aqueduct (Lower Aqueduct) and the Sultan's Pool, where they now hold many outdoor concerts in the summer for everyone from Sting to Depeche Mode.
























Our main goal of the day was to walk through the Hinnom Valley looking for Iron Age pottery because there had been a lot of rain recently, and in Mark's archaeology class, his professor had talked about the "truckloads of Iron Age pottery" that could be found in the Hinnom Valley, especially after it rains. To give you some directional orientation, if you are looking at a map of the Old City, the Hinnom Valley runs down the west side of the city wall and follows the southern wall until it converges with the Kidron Valley, which runs down the eastern wall of the Old City.

We wandered south through the Hinnom Valley looking for pottery. You can always find lots of broken pottery pieces on the surface, but most of them are small pieces that aren't noteworthy in any way. The "diagnostic pieces" as they call them in archaeology, are handles, the rim/lip pieces, and the bottom of the pots, jars, etc. We found some of the basic handle pieces that we usually find, but we didn't keep any, because most of them look the same. We walked up part of the Jerusalem trail (stripes marked on the rocks) onto a hilltop where an old Jordanian lookout post remained. We also found a number of old grave shafts that had been quarried away and a huge rock archway (with some more burial caves here and there). The hillside overlooks the Arab village of Abu Tor, and we were just in time to catch the calls to prayer coming from all of the mosques in the area.










We walked back up the Hinnom Valley and up the southern slope of the Old City to Mt. Zion. On the way up, I found a couple of good handle pieces of pottery that were still attached to the "pot" at large, which we hadn't found until that point. Most handle pieces are broken off from the actual pot itself, so it was an exciting find.

We wanted to see Oscar Schindler's grave on Mt. Zion, but the cemetary was closed, so we just got a view from behind the gates. We also stopped by a church which commemorates Peter's denial of Christ (because I needed a restroom) and looked around at their underground remains (Byzantine) while we were there. They also had a map of Byzantine Jerusalem (seen below) and model of Jerusalem.
























Anyways, there is always a lot more history and information that I could put in these posts, but it would take way too long (honestly), so I am leaving that work up to you and your own curiousity. There is a lot of information out there on any number of these places that I have mentioned, so read more on whatever interests you!

I am catching up on a few old posts, but don't worry - I'll put the newest stuff up soon. Our friend Phil (in the solid white t-shirt) had his 24th birthday in January. We threw him a surprise party at our apartment. He even tried to back out on us, and we had to make him come. Anyways, it was a fun time, and we wrote him a group-effort poem collectively. Mine was really a limerick, but what can I say...I like limericks...they're more fun :)

There once was a man named Phil
Who lived on the top of French Hill
Allergic to sugars
And sodas and boogers
He ate only meat from the grill

If you knew Phil, it would make sense...

So one of my closest friends here in Israel is Audra, but she pronounces her name Ow - dra like (Ow! that hurts!), and I pronounce my name Aw-bree like (Awwww! that's cute!). Anyways, it can get a little confusing where were together. Sometimes I even find myself pronouncing my own name incorrectly. But anyways, she is a fun girl from Boston - and as you can see, we have some fun times together :)

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Hey guys. Mark and I just got back from a week up North. I am trying to clean-up and organize lots of pictures, so sorry for the delay in blogging. They will be coming soon. In the meantime, we still have some time off, and Mark is working on a final paper for Jeremiah!

This is the map that Barkay is pointing at while he is talking. It is hard to see because it is an illuminated map in a dark room.