Saturday, we started the day at Bet-Shean, just south of Galilee.  This is the most excavated city in the area due to its strategic location along the Jordan river.  It was the gate-keeper city to the east.  This is the city where the Philistines hung the bodies of King Saul and his sons after defeating them in battle to warn the world not to mess with them.  The ancient city was on the hill in the distance, and the ruins of the lower city with the columns was a Roman city during Jesus time.  This was the main city of the Decapolis (10 cities) that Jesus taught at on his way from the Galilee region to Jerusalem.

The city of Bet-Shean

 

 

Next we went on to Jericho, the oldest city in the world.  We saw excavated ruins of the walls and the tower of the city.  The picture below is of the spring of Elijah that he purified so the people would not have to move.  It still has the purist water in the region today.

 

Then we made the 3000 foot climb up the mountains to Jerusalem.  It was really cool riding into the city.  You drive through a tunnel in the mountain, and when you come out the other side you have a full panoramic view of the ancient and modern city.  Below is an exact model of the ancient city as it would have been in Jesus day.  This is at the Jerusalem museum.  Tomorrow we will start a tour of much more of the city. 

 

 

We also toured the Dead Sea Scroll museum that houses the scrolls found in the 1940's that contain the earliest manuscripts of the scriptures.  All of the books of the Bible were found here except Ester, and many copies of several of the books.  Many of these manuscripts were from as early as 25 years after the time that the events took place.  So the authors of the manuscripts would have been eye witnesses of the events.  And they say exactly the same thing our modern Bible says today.  So to those who say 'how can such an old book that has been translated into so many languages still be reliable today?'... you should come look.