Waterfalls

So this is actually from yesterday... Today wasn't very exciting, so I'll probably tack it onto tomorrow.

We went to so many beautiful places today. Who knew Israel could be so gorgeous? Our first stop was Hazor, which was actually not gorgeous. It was actually a lot like Beer-Sheba and the Maresha and some of the other ancient ruins from about the time of the Israelites that we’ve seen. They did have a pretty cool watchtower, though. Hazor is where Deborah and Barak fought off like, the Philistines, I think. In the Book of Judges.

Next we went to Caesarea Philippi, also known as Banias. Now this place was cool. There’s this huge cave with the ruins of a Roman temple next to it. I actually got a picture in my mind’s eye, as I saw it from the corner of my eye, of what it would have looked like when the temple was whole, and it must have looked awesome. Caesarea Philippi is where the Savior asked Peter, “Whom say ye that I am?” (Mark 16:16-19, I think). Our teacher talked about the symbolism of the rock that is illustrated by the vast cliff face there. The rock is all reddish and black and it’s really pretty impressive. And there were also some cool little waterfalls there.

Then we hiked over to the Banias waterfall, which is one of the sources of the Jordan River. It was absolutely gorgeous. There are five tributaries running into this one little choke point where it roars over the waterfall and down through the woods and it’s just magnificent. The observation deck was pretty muddy though, lol. I was wishing for my tennis shoes yesterday, and I was so glad that I wore them instead of my sandals today. Sandals are great, but not for trekking all around the Galilee.

We ate lunch at Tel Dan, which is the main source of the Jordan. We didn’t see as much of the river, although we did get to walk along this pretty trail next to it. It’s pretty much just a nature reserve, though it used to be the northernmost city of ancient Israel. And it’s where Jeroboam built one of his golden calves (1 Kings 12:28), so we talked about that. And there was this huge mudbrick gate that apparently dates back to Abraham. Pretty cool. Oh, and we could see Lebanon from there. Too bad we can’t go there.

Our last stop was Nimrod’s Castle. And it was a pretty darn cool place. They basically just gave us an hour to explore, and it was really fun. The view was incredible. And it just kept getting better the further you explored. And the castle itself was pretty sweet. It was used by Muslims as a fortress during the Crusades. I dunno, mostly it was just really cool to explore. There were all kinds of places you could climb down and around in. I felt pretty adventurous. I wish I could describe it better.

I was definitely exhausted by the end of the day. We just saw so many awesome things. Tonight we had a bonfire on the beach. We roasted marshmallows and ate s’mores and sang Girl’s Camp songs and played some games. It was pretty chill. Good way to end the day. So we only have like, 2 more days here. It’s gone by way fast. Faster than I thought it would, for sure. I will definitely be glad to get back to edible lunches, tho. The sack lunches they’ve been packing for us here… Well, I can’t say as much for them. But I will miss the beach.