Israel Day 6 - Philistine Country & Beersheba

Today, we made our way from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea. On a map, the two are fairly close to each other, but since we stayed in Israel, we made a big half loop around the southern portion of the country as we stopped at various sites.

Our first stop was the site of David and Goliath's face-off in Elah Valley between the mountains Sokoh and Azekah. We read 1 Samuel 17 as we stood in the brook that David crossed as he went to meet Goliath. We're reading the Bible with our feet!

The Valley of Elah

Our second stop took us to Beersheba, where Abraham made a covenant with Abimelek from Genesis 21. They've excavated an almost entirely intact city center from the 9th/8th century BCE! It's debated but archaeologists believe the city is from the time of either Hezekiah or Josiah before the Assyrian conquest. The area we saw included storehouses for grain and supplies, residential homes (about 75!), governor's palace, water source, and city wall to name a few. This city center lined the perimeter with four-room homes (diagram shown below) and used the back walls as the city wall. If there were invaders coming, they'd fill the homes on the side of the invasion with rubble to create a thicker protective structure. This was so they could make use of that space when they weren't under attack. Also, because people at that time didn't sleep for eight hours straight like we do today, there would have always been several people awake to be on guard for an attack. It was a very efficient system! Unfortunately, the Assyrian army eventually overtook the band of armed farmers, but their city was successful for quite some time! 

The Four Room House, a typical residential home at this time

Our final stop was in Tel'Arad where, in the span of two hills and about a five minute walk, we were able to see a fortress from the 8th century BCE (time of kingdom of Judah) and a Canaanite city from the early third millennium BCE (Early Bronze Age)! That's 2000 years apart! The fortress was similar to Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem where they had a temple, sacrificial altar, water source, administrative offices and military buildings. At first glance, this doesn't seem like a big deal, but the Israelites were not supposed to make sacrifices anywhere except the Jerusalem Temple once per year. Building another temple for sacrifices was a big no-no, but it was likely used until King Hezekiah later enforced that law. The Canaanite city was harder to see since many of the walls were so low to the ground. I can say it was well-planned with temples, a large surrounding wall, a substantially sized palace, residential areas, and a well for the city. The fact that any remains from the city exist is still astonishing to me!

Picture of the Temple Area

The sacrificial altar is in the center surrounded by a courtyard

The wall to the left of the altar marks the holy place (only priests allowed)

The wall to the left of that marks the Holy of Holies (only the high priest once per year)

I also finally got a decent picture of a water cistern! We've seen at least one per day but they're usually dark and difficult to see. They're basically giant pits carved into the ground, usually covered with hydrophobic plaster, where a city will store its water. It's different than a well because it doesn't have its own natural source of water - it has to be brought in from somewhere else. They'd also have to mix the water with wine to make it safe to drink (because water sitting in a cool dark place = mold and gunk). It's the third water source choice after a river/lake and well/spring, but many communities used them well.

Water cistern

Finally, we arrived at the Dead Sea after winding through the desert. Tomorrow, we'll go to Masada for a half day and then return for time to swim (float) in the Dead Sea! 

Just a pretty desert picture from our drive to the Dead Sea