Day 5 - Tuesday, April 9 - Nazareth en Megiddo

Today we went to Nazareth, first to the mountain from which it is said they tried to throw Jesus off. It looks beautiful, including fantastic views to Mount Tabor and Gilboa and the towns of Endor and Nain, and even 'the place where the tent of Jael stood'.

Only, according to the Bible account, "They rose up and rushed him outside the city, and they led him to the brow of the mountain on which their city had been built, in order to throw him down headlong." So not the mountain opposite Nazareth, but the mountain on which the city itself was built. But there is also another funny detail, a plaque on this mountain states that according to an old tradition, Jesus jumped off this mountain to escape his pursuers.

Then to "Nazareth Village" where first century life was recreated as a kind of open air museum with active demonstrations and explanations, very interesting and well done. A shepherd with sheep, a potter, olive oil production, a vineyard with observation tower, wool spinning, and more.

Then visited a start-up of a two-person drone with wing with range of 100 km and sat in the simulator for five minutes and saw how far they are with the development. Unfortunately, the prototype was not present because they where at a test site with it.

Megiddo is the flagship of Israel archaeology. Some thirty cities were built on top of each other after the previous one was destroyed yet again. Thus an old city gate and a newer one have been found. The old one is the most interesting but cannot be seen well from the air because of a canvas above it.

There are many earthquakes in Israel, and apparently they invented a way of constructing so that structures were earthquake-proof. According to King Solomon's building program, " As for the great courtyard, round about were three rows of hewn stone and a row of beams of cedarwood; and this also for the inner courtyard of the house of Jehovah, and for the porch of the house.” (1 Kings 6:36; 7:12). And so also this gate in Megiddo.

Videos:
1. The alleged rock outside Nazareth, the view all around with first Mount Gilboa and later Mount Tabor and then modern Nazareth, and with a wave.
2. Megiddo, with very strong winds and that can sometimes be seen because the camera did not stay still.

Photos: 4 x Rock outside Nazareth,
8 x Village from Biblical times closely recreated, with shepherd, how big the rock tombs really were, and lastly as the synagogue in Nazareth looked approximately.
2 x Air One Drone and Airplane at the same time but as a scale model.
3 x Megiddo, the crown jewel of Israeli archaeology.