Ponderings From The Bubble: Israel Day 9: Visitng the Negev

We stopped at a well preserved underground tomb. I don't remember the name of the location. This tomb has been restored with fresh plaster and paint.

We have spent the past three days traveling around the "deep south" of Israel. In that time, we visited the Negev, Mitzpe Ramon, the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in Ashkelon, and all the way to the Dead Sea near En Gedi and Qumran. Below is my impression report from the first day (June 22). I'll post reports for the other days sometime tomorrow.

One thing that I really enjoyed today was listening to Dr. Rasmussen discuss possible locations in the Elah Valley for the David and Goliath event. Not only did he discuss a couple of the possible locations, but we were able to see them. I have never really read Bible stories before and even really thought about the geography that is integral to these events. It had not occurred to me that the there are some clues given that can help locate a probable location of the event. It was also helpful to discuss why the location we had been instructed to mark on our map may not be the correct location. It was also fascinating to see just how far apart the opposing forces may have been. To have to yell and taunt across such a distance is quite impressive.

Lachish was interesting to me because I really didn’t know much about the location or the events that had transpired there. I had heard the name before a few times, but I couldn’t remember just why it was so important. It was fascinating to learn about how this location was such a poster child for Biblical archaeology. The fact that there is such a preponderance of evidence from not only different literary sources but from the archaeology itself is quite impressive. All of these various sources really come together to give an excellent view of the event. It was also amazing to me just how many pottery shards were on the ground. Dr. Richter had commented the week before about all of the pottery shards we were walking on, and all I saw were different rocks. After she spent a little bit of time explaining what to look for, they practically jumped out at me. It was fun to pick up various pieces of ancient pottery and look at them. It was even more awesome when she could tell us what part of a vessel it was such as the mouth, side, bottom, or handle piece. It’s amazing what you can learn from small pieces of pottery.

One of my favorite parts of the day was the visit to Ashkelon. I knew it was near the Mediterranean Sea, but I somehow missed that it was right there at the shore of it. I was excited about this for several reasons. First, I was pretty hungry and it was lunch time. Secondly, I figured it would be cooler that close to the water. Thankfully, this was the case. Thirdly, I had not been to the Mediterranean Sea before and I really wanted to swim in it. Sadly, this was not possible due to dangerous water conditions, but at least we still got to splash our feet in it. I enjoyed listening to Dr. Richter give a short talk on the archaeological dig process. The fact that she was doing this while we stood in front of an active dig site made it even more interesting. I also really enjoyed getting to see the massive gate up close. We had talked in class about how the Philistines used mud bricks in their construction. I was thrilled to get to see some original mud bricks up close. It’s hard to believe that these were all made by hand.

After visiting the antiquities for a little while, it was refreshing to be able to just walk down the beach and walk through a little bit of the surf. I really enjoyed getting to see some dead jelly fish. This may sound a bit morbid, but it was cool. The reason is that these jellyfish looked rather different from those that I’ve seen in Florida. They had much shorter tentacles. I need to look up what varieties occur in the Mediterranean Sea. I also enjoyed looking at the various seashells along the shore. The reason for this is that the shells were different from what I’ve seen in Florida and in Washington State. They tended to all be fairly small and quite uniform one to another. They were different sizes and colors, but they were mainly all the same shape.

This is standing on an overlook above the beach. We walked down to the beach later. Notice the how dirty the shirt is from crawling into a tomb. It might also be because I ate some ice cream that dripped...

The biggest highlight for me was when we arrived at the youth hostel in Mitzpe Ramon. I was expecting to be in a room with 12 other guys and that we’d have to use a communal bathroom two floors down. Instead, we were treated to having just three guys in a room with a private bathroom, air conditioning, and cable TV. This is far beyond what I had envisioned. On top of this, we were at an absolutely beautiful location at the Big Machtesh. I was not prepared for how large this thing is. It reminded me of looking down into the Grand Canyon. It was absolutely stunning.

A view of the Big Machtesh. This is also sometimes called the Super Bowl.

The last highlight of the day for me was walking through the town looking for the small grocery store. We finally found it, and were surprised at all the packed into there. One person described it as a “mini WalMart.” It was fun to spend some time exploring a small town outside of Jerusalem and see what all was there. As an added bonus, it was a great way to enjoy the cooler temperatures of the evening!

Me posing with some creepy statue located along a path the follows the rim of the Big Machtesh

Over all this day far exceeded any of my expectations. I’m so thankful that for the opportunity to so many different locations from the Bible and to experience the beauty of the land God created.