Dead Sea Scrolls and the River Jordan

Today we left Jerusalem via a beautiful panoramic view of the city from the top of The Mount of Olives. After that we traveled to the countryside where the Dead Sea scrolls were discovered in 1947 by a Bedouin shepherd boy.  These parchment documents were preserved about 2000 years in caves, and were written by the Essenes, a sect of Judaism that had established a community east of Jerusalem.  These are the oldest transcripts of the Bible and other religious writings.  The ipad mini, our technology of choice, was temporarily on the fritz so no photos right now.

After this we traveled north to a city named Beit She'an, a city with an archeological site, a Roman style city.  The first phot below is the theatre.

Next we have Main Street....

And last but not least, the latrines.....

And in case you were curious, you sit between the slabs of stone that are protruding from the wall and do what needs to be done.  There is a stream of water that flows out, keeping the area clean and odor free (ha ha). Another clean stream of water flows for washing purposes.  As you can see it's not private but it's ok because your gowns are keeping you covered.  There was no hurry to leave as it was actually a place to socialize. 

Our next stop was the Jordan River....we opted to forgo a baptism of any sort but did put our big toe in the water.  

We arrived at Tiberius, a town on the Sea of Galilee.  For some reason my image of the this body of water was that of a small calm northern Wisconsin lake.  However, its large and crossing this lake in a row boat as Jesus and his disciple did would be no small feat.

Another interesting fact is the distance between Nazareth and Jerusalem is about 100 miles...quite a walk!

We are staying at a kibbutz type resort.  The kibbutz lifestyle was fascinating (read about it on the internet).  There are about 150 kibbutzs in Israel, but only 12-15 still operate according to the initial ideology.

 

Karen