Galilee Rotation Day 11: Mediterranean Field Trip

Map and itinerary for Thursday, July 26:

Leaving `En Gev (A) for the last time, we drove first to Haifa (B) to see the Templar Cemetery and the Bahá'í Gardens.  We then drove through the Druze towns of Isfiya (C) and Daliyat el Karmil and the Carmel National Forests to Muhraka (D; lit., "place of burning" and the traditional site of Elijah's defeat of the priests of Ba`al). Finally we went to Herod's city of Caesarea Maritima (E) on the coast before returning home to Jerusalem (F).

Earlier visits to these final sites:

• Fall 2011
• Winter 2012

Templar Cemetery

The Templars (not to be confused with the Knights Templar of the Crusader-era) were a German millennialist Christian sect that relocated to Haifa in the nineteenth century.  The earlier Latter-day Saint missionaries worked among the Templars, and some of them are buried in this cemetery.

Entering the Templar Cemetery via the British War Cemetery

Brother Jackson describing the history of the Latter-day Saint presence in Haifa

 

The Bahá'í Gardens

The headquarters and central shrines of the Bahá'í faith are in Haifa as well.

 

 

Muhraka, the place of Elijah

Rachel on Mount Carmel

Overlooking the Jezreel Valley

Elijah slaying the priest(s) of Ba`al

And some of our students reenacting the scene!

Caesarea Maritima

Herod built this great artificial port and city on the Mediterranean Sea to connect his kingdom more fully with the Roman world.  Later it became the Roman capital of Judea and then an important Byzantine center.  After declining under the Arabs, its last significant phase was during the Crusader occupation.

First some pictures of the aqueduct that supplied the city with its water and ran along the seaside:

Class pic at the aqueduct

 

Creepy Towel Dude

Next, pictures of Herod's Palace, that later became the Roman governor's headquarters.  This is probably where the apostle Paul was tried before Festus and Agrippa II (see Acts 24-26):

Class pic in the Judgment Hall where Paul's trial may well have taken place

 

And here are other pics from the Roman, Byzantine, and Crusader periods of Caesarea:

Rachel running a "race" in the hippodrome (stadium)

Another faux race by my students

A Byzantine bathhouse

Rachel in a "hot tub"

Geoff, Brooke, Rachel, Juan, Alicia

 

Remnants of the Crusader harbor

 

At last on our way home after a great 11 days!