Today was our final day in the northern district of Israel and I had plans to visit all three of the villages that Jesus cursed, as well as a visit to the Mount of Beatitudes and Peter's Primacy as well, all in a fairly short distance from each other on the northern edge of the Sea of Galilee. A huge downer the previous night was receiving news that due to some virus cases in Bethlehem, the border with the West Bank had closed and hotels were barred from accepting foreigners. This was a massive blow, especially for Vinci, as it meant we would not be able to visit Nablus, Jericho, Bethlehem or Bethany. These would have been very busy days, but will have to wait until next time.
Still, it was a beautiful day and we had too much to do to get bogged down in what could have been. We enjoyed a nice breakfast while watching the final bird migrations fly over the Sea of Galilee. This is a really amazing site and was fascinating to see literally thousands of birds circle in what looks like a tornado before one would peel off with the rest following in hot pursuit towards the Hula Valley. Vinci had naturally found a friend to help us finish breakfast before we checked out.
Beth Saida
The official Beth Saida is very close to where we were staying in Had Nes, however in recent years a village much closer to the shore of the Sea of Galilee has been discovered and is currently being excavated by Dr. Notley and a team of archaeologists. Every new excavation brings forth new evidence that points this as the real Beth Saida. I suspect it will not be long until this site is given the official accreditations. For this reason we decided to attempt a visit here rather than the officially recognised one. Unfortunately after heavy rains in the past couple of days, the dirt road had become a quagmire and not even the Mitsubishi's 147 horses could traverse the mud.. but God knows I tried! We would eventually end up making a visit here later on in the trip which you can read about in part 28.
Capernaum
We carried on to Capernaum, which was a short two minute drive away. You can find Capernaum on Google Maps at 32°52'49.78"N 35°34'34.25"E. A large visitor center has been built next to Capernuam with a dock, car park and amenities. Often large tour groups will assemble here before storming the ancient city with their bright coloured polo shirts and beige shorts.
Capernaum was Jesus' home town and the center of his ministry. Evidence of humans has been traced back to the 4th millennium BC, however the major settlement of Capernaum didn't begin until ~400BC. The city grew to an estimated size of around 1,500 people at its peak. Today roughly a third of the land is owned by the Fransiscan church and two thirds owned by the Greek Orthodox church.
The Fransiscan site is the smaller section and can be described as the more developed part of Capernaum. Entry is by admission, but it's not expensive. It contains the excavated remains of much of the city amongst which, are two very important buildings.
The first is a 4th century synagogue which was built on top of the ruins of the original 1st century one where Jesus preached. This synagogue is quite a grand affair and has three entrances and very ornate pillars. According to the book of Luke, it was funded by the Roman centurion who was based here.
The second building of religious significance is a house that is believed to have belonged to Simon Peter. This is of course not guaranteed, however the evidence that has been provided to us from the excavation seems to support this claim. During the excavations, the archaeologists were able to determine some walls dating back to the first century which had been converted from a house into a church. Upon the walls they found a lot of messages etched into the stones, many of which mention Peter by name.
When the Fransiscan's purchased the property, they wanted to build a church on the site, particularly over the house of Simon Peter. The only way they could achieve this without disturbing or destroying the remains of the house, was to build an elevated church. The church is called St. Peter's church and was completed in 1990. It has a modern layout and features a glass floor in the center looking down on the ruins of Simon Peter's house. Despite the throng of tourists about, there was a brief moment where I was able to get some photos with no one in it! (Except Vinci of course)
The site has a large open area adjacent to the shore with an outdoor chapel, a few park benches and some cats. Vinci was only able to get one to give her a modicum of attention, but the other one decided to go fishing instead. I'm pretty sure we witnessed a miracle here. Just like when Jesus told the disciples to cast their nets onto the other side of their boat, which brought about a catch almost causing them to capsize, the cat's fish was more than twice the size of her!
The other side of Capernaum is owned by the Greek Orthodox church, but unlike their Catholic counterparts, have a very different approach to how they manage their portion. They hold two acres of unexcavated land, estimated to contain an even larger section of the city. The church however has decided that they want to remain as a church and not desecrate it by becoming another tourist site. At the moment it is very overgrown and fenced off.
The grounds of the church and the monastery are very well manicured. There is a small canopy at the edge of the sea with a gate leading into the water for baptisms, but looking at the water quality, I'm not sure anyone would want to get baptised here! I suspect all the recent rain fall and record high water levels have brought about a lot of debris to the coast line. The best part for me about the gardens are the peacocks that roam around. There are at least five males and even though there is a large high fenced area for all the other chickens, turkeys and fowl, the peacocks simply fly over the top and roost in the trees or show off their incredible feathers.
The Greek church is a rather large, but subtle white building with red domes. The inside however, is definitely not so subtle and is extraordinarily decorated with paintings and decorations covering every available centimeter of the walls and ceiling.
"Then he went down to Capernaum,a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath he taught the people. They were amazed at his teaching, because his words had authority."
- Luke 4:31-32
Mount of Beatitudes
The Mount of Beatitudes is another of the places that is hotly contested over its true location and we will of course never know for certain. There are four contenders including Mount Arbel and the Horns of Hattim. The latter is quite some distance and seems unlikely, although this was historically recognised as being the spot for some time. The other more likely spots are more convincing and the Roman Catholics built a church on a mountain near Tabgha, ironically funded by none other than Benito Mussolini. The last assumed place is in the same area, but much closer to the shoreline - and it is this spot (32°52'24.42"N 35°33'05.54"E) that we decided to visit.
As we had a raised vehicle, we were able to park on the side of the road where many other vehicles had tried and failed. To get to our Mount of Beatitudes was either by a short steep walk or a much longer but easier stroll and we went for the shorter option. At the summit, there is a large rock monument indicating that this is the spot. Today was quite hot and it was very nice to sit under the large tree for a few moments. From here we found a bust of Jesus hidden inside some dense vegetation with some Fan-footed geckos sunbaking on his face. The vantage point from here offers stunning views of the Sea of Galilee.
The Mount of Beatitudes is the location from which Jesus gave his Sermon on the Mount as read in the book of Matthew chapters 5 through 7. This sermon is of particular importance to Christians and was his longest recorded speech, many parts of which are amongst the most widely quoted parts of the gospel. I could explain it all here, but Matthew does a much better job of it than I do!
The serenity was ruined by two yobbos who came racing up the hill in a caged 4wd vehicle to smoke their Hookah pipes and we left shortly after taking a few photos. As Peter's Primacy was just downhill on the other side of the main road, we headed here next, but not before stopping at a beautiful little cave inside the mountain before moving on.
"When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him and he began to teach them." - Matthew 5:1-2
Peter's Primacy
Peter's Primacy was one of the busiest places we found in all of Israel. There was a huge number of tourists all vying for a photo on the stony beach or inside the church. We still find it unbelievable that many of the places we had visited were deserted compared to here.
Still, there is obviously the religious connection here and hence is a major part of the Israel tourist trail. The site is built on the ruins of a Byzantine church built in the 4th century, the foundations of which can be seen against the walls of the church on the shore line. This church, unlike most others, survived for a very long time until it was destroyed in the middle of the 13th century. The current church was completed in 1933 and in front of the altar are some rocks incorporated into the floor which are believed to be the ones where Jesus prepared a breakfast of fish and bread for his disciples after his resurrection. He then reinstated Peter by asking him if he loved him three times (as Peter had denied Jesus three times at his crucifixion) and then instructed him to feed his sheep and he would be the founder of his church.
And I tell you, that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." - Matthew 16:18
Chorazin
Chorazin was the next and final location of the day. This was a very large city and much remains to be excavated. All of the remaining buildings are made from basalt, which is found in huge quantities in the local area. It can be found on the side of a hill at coordinates 32°54'41.27"N 35°33'52.09"E, around 3 to 5 kilometers from Beth Saida and Capernaum respectively. Chorazin was the town where the disciples Peter, Philip and Andrew grew up.
The construction of a lot of the buildings is particularly interesting in this city. Most of the buildings were built from heavy basalt rocks. The roofs were made from the same material in a uniform size and as such, the buildings required many supporting walls to take the weight and size of these huge stone slabs. The strongest and most efficient way to do this was in the form of arches and many of these can still be seen throughout the city.
To date, the most significant and imposing structure is the remains of the synagogue. This synagogue was built during the 3rd and 4th century AD. Curiously it has carvings of the Greek mythological figure of Medusa incorporated into its design. This alone serves as proof that the inhabitants continued to worship idols long after jesus had cursed the town and warned of great calamity of what would happen to the city if they continued.
Inside the synagogue, a stone chair called the seat of Moses was discovered, a place reserved for someone of high authority. It is possibly the very one Jesus spoke about in Matthew 23.
The entire city was destroyed, most likely by an earthquake which is common in this area in around 500AD. It laid abandoned for around 1500 years with excavations beginning as early as the 19th century.
Interestingly, there has been no solid evidence of anything dating to the 1st century to date, however with ongoing excavations it is highly likely something will be discovered sooner or later. In fact, there is even a very slight chance that this city is not even ancient Chorazin, although based on the historical documents and maps, we can be quite confident that it is.
Vinci and I found a new type of animal here, the Hyrax (also nicknamed Rock Rabbits). These are mentioned in the Bible as an animal not to be eaten. Given that most of them have large fang like teeth, I'm not sure I would even want to get close to one, let alone baste it in olive oil. Many of these can be found in the park scampering around or sunbaking on one of the millions of rocks lying about.
"Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago."
- Matthew 11:21
Drive to Jerusalem
Unfortunately the time had come to leave the north and head to Jerusalem. There was still one more thing to do and that involved driving one more time on the absolutely incredible route 98, which I wrote about back in part 5. There was a slightly quicker way to get to Jerusalem, but this would have only saved 20 minutes or so. This time, I decided to install the Go-Pro suction cup onto the front windshield to record the this spectacular road and I am happy to be able to share it in video format below.
To get to Jerusalem, we drove through the West Bank again using route 90 and route 1. This was done mostly in darkness and higher concentration was required due to, quite frankly, crap driving of the locals. The concept of dipping headlights has not reached this part of the world yet and a great number of people take insane risks by crossing double lines on blind corners to get in front of a slow vehicle, almost getting cleaned up by an oncoming truck in the process. Once we made it onto route 1, most of these shenanigans were over, but was replaced by mad Egged bus drivers.
We eventually made it to our hotel after driving around the block a few times trying to figure out the hidden car park. We stayed at the YMCA Three Arches fairly close to the Old City. This is a large hotel that was built in the 1930's. It is quite a unique and beautiful landmark in Jerusalem with an imposing bell tower in the middle of the hotel. Of all of the signs they could put in the gardens, such as keep of the grass, or no smoking, they chose prohibition of pooping Labradors. Weird.
We regretfully had dinner in the hotel restaurant. I asked the waiter for a table for two and he looked confused but sat us down all the same and came back shortly after with a single bottle of beer for us branded "Table". A bit of a stare down occurred while we tried to figured out which one of us was the moron. Dinner was pretty bad and we should have used our usual self-advice of not eating in empty restaurants.
More photos of Capernaum and Chorazin are shown below.
Had Nes - One of the Pelican tornadoes over the Sea of Galilee
Capernaum - A beautiful Agama lizard. These are common all over Israel, but this was the only one I saw with brilliant turqoise scales!
Capernaum - A small pool near the Greek monastery had a huge amount of noisy frogs
Capernaum - The head of one of the Greek Orthodox church's incredible peacocks
Capernaum - Much of the land was overgrown with huge blankets of mustard flowers
Capernaum - The water levels of the Sea of Galilee had risen substantiantially in the previous weeks
Capernaum - A peacock in a tree
Capernaum - Inside the Greek Orthodox church
Capernaum - This is my rock. There are many like it, but this one is mine
Capernaum - Columns within the 4th century synagogue
Capernaum - Many houses have been unearthed
Capernaum - Intricate carving details on a column head, this one showing a minorah
Capernaum - Many of the ornately carved stones on display
Capernaum - a White-eyed gull flies over Capernaum
Capernaum - A low flying IAF Lockheed C-130H Hercules
Chorazin - An unearthed Mikveh (ritual bath)
Chorazin - A larger basalt structure on the west side of the city
Chorazin - Remains of the synagogue
Chorazin - One of the common arched suporting walls
Chorazin - Details of the remains of the basalt stone synagogue
Continue to Part 21 - click here