Mark read reports for a few days then Walter started by giving facts… Border of Dan to Beersheva is both ends of the (Biblical) country… Sea of Galilee supplies the country with one third of its water.
We passed someone on the road wearing a bright yellow vest and Walter explained that everyone must have one in their car so if you break down you can be seen. Israel is trying to maintain safety on the roads.
As we traveled we went past the Hebron hills, farms and lots of flat land.
Walter talked of his army days and we asked who was in the army. Druze can be in the army and are in the main units. Bedouin are in the army as trackers. They can tell by the footprint whether it is a male or a female, weight and if they are carrying something heavy.
Strange sight… we are in a slow traffic and man in the car driving was davening. Scary.
Passed the town of Kiryat Gat… main industry is high-tech (Intel), citrus, textiles (Lee jeans) and formerly had sugar. Gat is one of the five cities of the Philistines. Goliath came from Gat.
Getting off the bus at Beersheva at Ben Gurion University we saw a Bedouin woman in a burka and Rachel explained there are a lot of Bedouin as students at BGU. Most are women and not all wear the full burka.
We took our picture of the day at BGU at the sign indicating that it is the Marcus Family Campus.
Rachel gave us a few facts… there are about 17,000 students, mostly men in engineering and women in humanities. Funding for higher education is in dispute. Cost is now about $1,000 per year. The mascot of the university is a camel.
We passed a Bedouin village—mostly lean-tos and tents. One tent had a hot water tank and TV antenna. Bedouin did a lot of the farming closer to the desert.
Beersheva is about 30 Kilometer from Gaza—just an interesting fact given to me by David Savitzky.
We are taking a sherutim stop at Avdat National Park where we will see a ruins and learn about the Nabateans.
A number of Israeli soldiers were there on a break as well.
We first saw a short film about the Nabateans and the “incense route”. The route (controlled by the Nabateans) came up from Arabia in the 3rd and 4th century, pushed out the Edomites and settled in Avdat. Before settling in cities, they set up trade routes that led to the Mediterranean. They exported incense and spices from Gaza. The Romans took over the Nabatean route in the 1st century. We rode the bus to the top of the site and Walter took us on a tour through the ruins.
Among the many things we saw was a working wine press. They had 10 stations above the stomping floor.
Channels led the juice to vats
then stored in vessels in caves. Another industry was an olive press to make oil as the olives are inedible directly from trees. We saw the church and monastery complex. We found interesting writing with symbols of a Menorah and a cross.
We saw a house with many small, dark rooms. As we left we walked down a winding staircase and Walter said it was the original stone.
We saw the bathhouse on the way down.
Loaded the bus once again and headed for lunch. On the way we passed a nasty prison for terrorists.
We had lunch at Mitzpe Ramon with an astounding view
of a crater made by a river eating away at the softest sandstone. The bedrock was old granite layer, a sandstone layer and a lime layer.
Leaving we saw about 10 ibex.
Walter told us wild animals are being re-introduced to the desert.
We stopped at Kibbutz Lotan then continued our journey to Eilat.
We arrived at the Dan Panorama Hotel, split into groups, ours went to dinner, took a walk and back to the hotel.
Looking forward to tomorrow.
B’Shalom,
Judith Schwartzman