
Back to the Temple Mount and a group photo in front of the Dome of the Rock.

Back to the Temple Mount and a group photo in front of the Dome of the Rock.

Appointment at the Western Wall – We started this day at the holiest site of Judaism, the western wall of the Temple Mount (also known as the Wailing Wall), where many of Jerusalem’s Jewish residents start their day in prayer.

Sunrise over the Mount of Olives on our first day in Jerusalem, the view from my hotel window.

Woke up one last morning on the shore of the Sea of Galilee with the city of Tiberias in the distance. Enjoyed our stay at Maagan Kibbutz Holiday Village.
On our Israel tours, we say we go places that other tours don’t go. And sometimes we get stuck.

We were hoping to see El Araj, one of the two sites currently vying to be identified as the biblical Bethsaida but there had been an unusually excessive (for May) amount of rain. But John DeLancey pushed the bus out of the mud and we were on our way.
We awoke to a beautiful day along the Sea of Galilee.

Each of our cabins has a beautiful view of the lake. (The Sea of Galilee is also known as Lake Kinneret.)
The wilderness east of Jerusalem is a harsh and foreboding land, as we found out on Day 5. But first we stopped at the world’s oldest city, Jericho.

The stone tower of Jericho, what some have called the first skyscraper in the world, built early in Jericho’s 9,000-year history. Later levels of occupation covered it.
The Dead Sea is a desert among water bodies, the most unusual lake in the world. Its surface is 1400 feet below sea level, and the water is almost 10 times as salty as the oceans.

The view from our oasis as a new day dawns. A truck drives toward bedouin villages.
The desert is a special place in the biblical story, and in Israel, as we found out on this day.

We started out day walking past the tamarisk tree to the ruins of Tel Beersheva.
The Shephelah is the foothill region of Israel, between the coastal plain and the Judean hills. In ancient times it was the border between the Israelites and the Philistines, so it has a number of sites of archaeological interest.

“Here’s the Shephelah,” says our co-leader, Dr. John DeLancey of Biblical Israel Ministries and Tours. We’re actually at the site of Gezer, an important Old Testament city that changed hands several times and was presented as a wedding gift to King Solomon by the Pharaoh of Egypt.