History becomes alive in Israel and other Bible Lands. Not only can well-known Biblical sites that are associated with both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament be visited, one can also sail across the Sea of Galilee and walk on ancient routes.
One such route is the Jesus Trail, a 65 km long hike from Nazareth to Capernaum.
The Jesus Trail is a 65-kilometer hiking trail in the Galilee region of Israel which connects important sites from the life of Jesus as well as other historical and religious sites. The Jesus Trail™ offers an alternative for travelers and pilgrims to experience the steps of Jesus in a way that is authentic, adventurous and educational by hiking through the rugged and beautiful landscape of the Galilee in Israel.
A beautiful mosaic floor was found in the dining room (triclinium) of one of the wealthy houses of Sepphoris. At one end of the mosaic floor is the face of a beautiful woman, who was quickly dubbed the "Mona Lisa of Sepphoris".
The Israel National Trail (INT) is a footpath that winds its way nearly 1000 kilometers across Israel, from the Lebanese border in the north to the Red Sea in the south. Because of the way it traverses Israel’s unique physical, ethnic, and religious landscape, the INT is gaining a reputation as one of the world’s great long-distance treks.
A new trail is at present being developed by William Ury, of the Harvard University, that will follow in the footsteps of the patriarch Abraham.
The Abraham Path, which is now being marked, begins in Haran and meanders its way to the city Gaziantep. From there, it continues southward, crosses the border into Syria and wends its way to Aleppo. The path then moves south, passes through Damascus before crossing into the kingdom of Jordan and the city Amman. At that point it crosses over to Jericho in the Palestinian Authority, and then to Nablus (Shechem), Jerusalem and Hebron, where Abraham was buried. Additional offshoots of the path follow Abraham’s journeys through Iraq and Israel.
The Israeli archaeologist Avner Goren is preparing a segment between Beersheba and Arad, while other groups are preparing different sections of this trail.
The Israel Museum welcomes you to the Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Project, allowing users to examine and explore these most ancient manuscripts from Second Temple times at a level of detail never before possible. Developed in partnership with Google, the new website gives users access to searchable, fast-loading, high-resolution images of the scrolls, as well as short explanatory videos and background information on the texts and their history. The Dead Sea Scrolls, which include the oldest known biblical manuscripts in existence, offer critical insight into Jewish society in the Land of Israel during the Second Temple Period, the time of the birth of Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism. Five complete scrolls from the Israel Museum have been digitized for the project at this stage and are now accessible online.
“We are privileged to house in the Israel Museum’s Shrine of the Book the best preserved and most complete Dead Sea Scrolls ever discovered,” said James S. Snyder, Anne and Jerome Fisher Director of the Israel Museum. “They are of paramount importance among the touchstones of monotheistic world heritage, and they represent unique highlights of our Museum’s encyclopedic holdings. Now, through our partnership with Google, we are able to bring these treasures to the broadest possible public.”
The five Dead Sea Scrolls that have been digitized thus far include the Great Isaiah Scroll, the Community Rule Scroll, the Commentary on Habakkuk Scroll, the Temple Scroll, and the War Scroll, with search queries on Google.com sending users directly to the online scrolls.
A press release from TravelVideo.tv lists the evocative tours taking place in and around the City of David this summer. These include:
The Archeological Experience at the Emek Tzurim National Park: Discovering the Past Hidden in the Dust: A unique exploration of the Temple Mount’s glorious past, travelers will be able to sift through rubble that originated in ancient buildings atop the Temple Mount while learning about the artifacts from on-site archeologists and guides.
Tour of the biblical City of David: A tour bringing travelers through Jerusalem’s biblical sites and places where the city’s the most stirring, remarkable artifacts were unearthed. Tour guides will lead travelers through an impressive underground world in Warren’s Shaft, the city’s ancient water system, as well as an illuminated walk in the waters of the Gihon Spring that flows through Hezekiah’s Tunnel.
In the footsteps of the Pilgrims – New Discoveries and Revelations from the Second Temple Period: A tour leading travelers in the footsteps of the architects of the city and incorporating recent archeological discoveries as well as the Shiloah Pool and the Herodian Road.
Enchanted Jerusalem-the New Nighttime Experience at the City of David: The new evening tour of the City of David begins at the Hatzofeh lookout point emphasizing the unique, low position of the biblical City of David in comparison with Jerusalem’s Old City walls. The tour will conclude with an innovative light show projected onto various antiquities, telling the story of the City of David through movement and sound.
Twilight at the City of David: A magical three-hour tour in a special nighttime ambiance allowing travelers to view the city through a course of excavations including David’s Palace and Hezekiah’s Tunnel. The tour concludes with harp music under the ancient olive trees in the King’s Garden.
Following the Water to Jerusalem – Hasmonean Aqueduct Tour: A flashlight tour highlighting the two 2,000-year-old aqueducts constructed to bring water from the Pools of Solomon to the Temple Mount and Upper City. Travelers will also witness the incredible views of ancient Jerusalem and the sophisticated water system built by King Herod on 150 BCE.
Kidron Monuments Tour: A tour of the massive, elaborate monuments in the Kidron Valley around the Old City’s original municipal border between the City of David and the Mount of Olives.
David Instone-Brewer of Tyndale House has created an enormously useful website for the study of Rabbinic Texts.
It is now easy to look up most of the early rabbinic legal texts. The rabbinic texts were among the first to be digitised and there are some wonderful tools, but the good ones cost a lot of money and aren’t very friendly.
So I made the RabbinicTraditions.com site for myself. It is quick to use and more powerful than most, and has proved so valuable that I’m making it available to everyone.
You can freely read the texts of the Hebrew Bible, the Mishnah, Tosephta and the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds. For a small fee per year or for life, you can fully search these texts.
The study of the Mishnah, in particular the tractate Middot, has helped enormously in my study of the Temple Mount and has made it possible to locate the pre-Herodian Square Temple Mount, shown in yellow in the illustration below:
To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the society has invited Prof. Ami Mazar to lecture on: “Archaeology in Israel: Achievements and the current state of research”. The lecture will take place at the Stevenson Lecture Theatre in the British Museum, London at 6.00 pm on Monday, June 27th.
The Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society (AIAS) was founded in 1961 by Professor Yigal Yadin, Dr Alec Lerner, Leon Shalit and Dr Richard Barnett. The aims of the society are to:
Make recent developments in the archaeology of Israel and neighbouring countries more widely known in the UK
Provide a series of illustrated public presentations explaining and informing on recent archaeological findings and new theories
Regularly publish Strata, an internationally respected journal consisting of original research papers
Provide grants for students of Middle Eastern Archaeology
Ami is one of Israel’s most outstanding archaeologists, with an impressive record of research and excavations. He has been a good friend since 1973, when we participated in an IDF archaeological survey of the Bashan region, southeast of Mount Hermon. After producing publication plans of his excavations at Tel Qasileh, I worked as surveyor for Ami at Tel Batash (Timnah of the Philstines) from 1978 till 1989.
His lecture will be of great interest to lovers of Israel and its history.
This new website offers virtual tours of archaeological sites and is worth visiting.
The Virtual World Project is designed for educational purposes, with teachers and students in mind. The project offers two modes for viewing the archaeological sites (Tour and Presentation mode). See the help screens for further information on using the project. Audio commentary is being added to many of the sites (see Herodium, Dan, Qasr Bshir, and Ramm, among others).
The project is continually being updated. Find out what is new in the project by visiting the project’s Blog. Click on the “Project Blog” link here or below. The project should be linked and accessed through its own domain at www.virtualworldproject.org
Research and documentation of Jordan’s archeology, folklore and modern history,
Education and information dissemination programmes to the public,
Collection, conservation and protection of artifacts and materials,
Exhibition, permanent or temporary, of artifacts and cultural heritage materials of Jordan.
The Archaeological and Historical Gallery is the largest gallery in the museum and will present Jordan’s history and culture from the Lithic Ages up to the Islamic periods (including the Rashidi and Ottoman Caliphates).
The Hebrew Dead Sea Scrolls are being moved from the old Jordan Archaeological Museum in Amman to this new museum.
It is to be hoped that some of the most important artefacts in the old museum will be moved as well, such as the Copper Scroll, the Balaam inscription and the tables and benches from Qumran.
This bench and table from Qumran are in need of conservation and deserve a better display. Photo: Leen Ritmeyer
The benches and tables were part of the Scriptorium at Qumran:
Recently we returned from a trip to Australia – hence the absence of blogs – and I was excited to receive this long-awaited book in the post.
Ronny Reich, Excavating the City of David – Where Jerusalem’s History Began
Ronny Reich has excavated in several locations in Jerusalem for over 40 years, starting in 1969 as surveyor on Prof. Nahman Avigad’s team in the Jewish Quarter (a position he held till 1978 when I took over this post, after he had left for the Israel Dept. of Antiquities and Museums) and in the City of David, together with his colleague Eli Shukron, since 1995.
This book is a fascinating account of the history of the City of David. The first part of the book recounts the activities of the many excavators who worked in this area and in the second part, Reich reconstructs the history of the City of David based on the results of all of the archaeological excavations.
The story of the early exploration begins with a description of the visit on April 17, 1838 by Edward Robinson to the Gihon Spring, the ever-flowing water source that determined the location of the City of David. This is followed by the account of Charles Warren’s daring walk through Hezekiah’s Tunnel, which Reich prefers to call the Siloam Tunnel. Reich then examines the explorations of many other excavators, such as Schick, Bliss and Dickie, Weill, Macalister and Duncan, Kenyon, Shiloh and others. Each investigator added a little to our understanding of the history of this site and Reich’s useful analysis of these findings makes it easier to fit them into an overall picture of the development of the City of David.
His own and Shukron’s explorations added much to our understanding of the waterworks in this location, especially how the different components, such as the Siloam Tunnel and the different channels worked together. His explanation of the construction of the Siloam Tunnel and how Channel I was used as a “spirit level” to make sure that the water of the Gihon Spring flowed smoothly to the Siloam Pool makes for exciting reading.
The excavations round the Gihon Spring revealed that the spring and its approach from the city were strongly fortified in the Jebusite period. Two massive walls created a safe approach to a Rock-cut Pool from which water could be drawn.
This book was written, according to Reich, “First and foremost … for lay readers who love the history of Jerusalem”. I found Reich’s discussion of the historical interpretations of the different finds honest and frank. He acknowledges, however, that he is a skeptic and minimalist where the Biblical text is concerned and has difficulty reconciling the text and the archaeological remains. He discusses these problems in a special boxed section called “Biblical traditions: David, Solomon and the United Monarchy”, which is well worth reading and may help in an accurate examination of the Biblical text.
The book is illustrated with many beautiful photographs, but I would like to have seen more interpretative drawings showing how certain features fit together. The text is easy to read, but a final edit should have weeded out mistakes in spelling and syntax.
The book was published by the Israel Exploration Society in Jerusalem, it has 384 pages and 207 illustration (most of them in color), Hard Cover, and measures 10 x 7.5 inches. ISBN: 9789652210821
