Thanks to Bruce Cotharn for today's dialog.
We
had a very nice breakfast this morning and headed out of Tel- Aviv on
the bus @ 8 am heading due north along the coast on Hwy # 2 to
Caesarea. You could see the Mediterranean to the west for almost all of
the drive. Ziggy /Ze 'evve, the comedian, told us historical story after
historical story of the area.
One
of the most interesting to us Louisianian's familiar with swamp land was that
the land had been nothing BUT swamp land. Eucalyptus trees were shipped in
from Australia and planted. The deep rooted trees soaked up miles and
miles of the swamp land, which allowed for the Israelis to develop it. Later
in the day he also told us Israel Nature Fund which was started to bring in and plant trees throughout
Israel because there were none at the time....now there are millions!
At
Caesarea we watched a short film about how it took King Herod the Great 12
years to build the city. Christianity began there and the Roman Gov't
under Ponticus Pilot is confirmed from archeological findings of his name on a
seat in the amphitheater and other evidence of his name on stones.
Herod
used his knowledge of Roman engineering to not only build the greatest port for
exporting goods by building a deep water pier for the ships, but he did
it from a shallow water beach!
Herod
also made it an entertainment mecca with a 4 thousand seat Amphitheater and
Hippodrome. We joked whether Roland Thompson could count all of those 4k
people. :)
The
Hippodrome where the chariots would race seven laps and where the movie Ben Hur
was filmed, also held the lions by putting them in one way to hold them and
bringing them out another. Ziggy also showed us mosaics that were laid
heading to a swimming pool from Herod's palace.
The
Amphitheater with building materials brought in from all over Europe but mostly
from Spain and Italy, with completely unobstructed stadium seating view was an
engineering marvel but most impressive were the acoustics. Alan Shoumaker
sang a verse of ' How Great Thou Art ' from the stage as we were behind him
towards the sea standing where the guests of honor would arrive in their
chariots....you could hear Alan perfectly! Currently Ziggy said, they
have some summer - Oct. concert series, perfect weather, breeze off of the
Mediterranean Sea, beautiful music...makes a nice evening of entertainment.
From
1959 - 1964 an Italian expedition group found the Amphitheater under sand. Sand
had completely covered up this great cities entertainment area over the
centuries and centuries...Ziggy said the Italians thought they were going to
have to dig deep, but instead simply learned they had to remove sand for five
years. Today a $ 3 million dollar donation has been given to help the restoration.
Because
my Father spent his entire working career in the water works business getting
water to housing and business developments all over the world, I was very
intrigued by the method of which Herod got drinking water to the Roman Army and
into Caesarea and this the great city of activity and business...he built a 7.5
mile aqueduct coming off of Mt. Carmel to the city. The arches of the
aqueduct stand about 7 ft tall, NOW in the sand and about 18-20 ft high by my
guess...I didn't confirm with the Smart family of engineers concerning the
height on the height ...but I did ask coming off of the mountain how much
elevation change over the 7.5 miles did they think it took to help gravity move
the water...Ridleys answer was... ' Probably just a little bit was all he
needed...(holding his thumb and finger close together) but don't think he had a
code of so much per foot (of course he quoted the exact number :) like we do
for sewage !' The width of the channel to me was about 2ft wide...but the depth
looked 3-4 ft...they could move water in that thing for sure!
In
the Amphitheater Bro French read to us from Acts 10:44 where the Bible speaks
of Peter's vision and for him to carry the message to the Gentiles from Jaffa
to Caesarea. The very places we had traveled, simply came alive in our
minds. Mark Stewart told Ridley Smart he had to go back and do his study
of Acts AGAIN, now that he has seen Caesarea!
Also
Bro. French read the Bible about Paul making his plea/appeal because he was a
Roman citizen to return to Rome. He did this after spending two years in
prison in Caesarea. The area where he was kept was back under part of the
Hippodrome. Bro. French also said an amazing statistic about Paul was
that every Roman guard who was in charge of him, he led to Christ!
Stained glass in the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth
Bro. Alan singing How Great Thou Art in Cesearea
Aquaducts
A sign on the way to our Kibbutz in Tiberias where we are staying tonight and tomorrow night.
Statue of Elijah at Mount Carmel where he challenged challenged the prophets of bael...and God sent the fire.
Judy Lee and Gloria Segura
Cathy, Ridley, Andi and Brian Smart
We were gathering outside the Church of the Annunciation and spotted this duck just hanging out.
