Oh, That Air Raid Siren? Yeah, That's Probably Nothing

Wednesday we drove the bus south to the seaside city of Ceasarea. We pulled over by the remains of Herod the Great’s aqueduct, which was perfectly placed on a Mediterranean beach, where we gleefully waded and enjoyed the beautiful blue waters of the sea. The scenery remained amazing as we drove through Modern Ceasarea, which is sort of the Beverly Hills of Israel. The ancient city itself is comparable to a very nice tourist retreat in America. Restaurants, a coffee bar in the remnants of a mosque, and a movie explaining the history of the town welcomed us to this remnant of Herod. Ceasarea was built by Herod the Great and survived multilple regime changes until the Arab sultan Beibars razed the city to the ground at the close of the crusades.

While touring the Roman ruins, an alarm went off which Moukhoul explained were used to warn of Hizbollah rocket attacks, but he suspected this alarm was merely a test. Increased air activity worried us after this, but nothing showed up in the news that night.

We later toured the massive Herodian fortress near Bethlehem. Herod the Great constructed an enormous palace with a series of escape tunnels throughout the mountain it sits on. We would have visited Herod’s tomb but more recent archeological diggings blocked the way.

Our final stop of the day was the Church of the Nativity, site of Jesus’ birth as alleged by many Christians. We toured the amazing Byzantine church, which was covered with mosaics and the remains of paintings on all the walls, and descended into the grotto underneath with the supposed spot of Jesus birth marked with lavish adornments and a silver star. It was incredible and made me feel very thankful to God for sending his son to such a messed up world (especially after all the turmoil we’d seen before then in the trip). However the decadent trappings of the place and the almost transactional way in which local monks traded money for “holy water” or even just tourist brochures really damaged my impression of the place. It was too showy, especially since the whole point of Jesus’ birth was that it wasn’t lavish or what anyone expected. It was humble, and totally unlike anything built on this site today.

After the church, checked into our hotel and took a short walk, grabbing some ice cream and discussing everything from accents and former jobs to the culture of the local people and American attitudes towards homosexuals. It was good bonding time for the group, and when we got back we retired to bed, happy and looking forward to Jerusalem in the morning.