Sunday, March 8, 2009: First Day of Touring

What a wonderful day of traveling. After our first Israeli breakfast and an early start, we made our way to our first stop, Caesarea Maritime. Caesarea Maritime ("by the Sea") is located on the shore in the center of Israel, in the middle between Haifa and Tel-Aviv. It is the site of one of the most important cities in the Roman World, the Roman capital of the province of Judea at the time of Jesus, and a Crusader fortress along the road from Acre to Jerusalem. Today, Caesarea is a large and interesting national park which and a mandatory place to visit while exploring the Holy Land.

Next we traveled to Megiddo or Tel Megiddo, an ancient fortified city, is one of the most famous battlegrounds in the world. Historians believe that more battles were fought at this location than anywhere else on earth. Anciently Megiddo's gates and walls witnessed the armed struggles of Assyrians, Canaanites, Egyptians, Greeks, Israelites, Persians, Philistines, and Romans. Although Megiddo was not a fortress in the days of World War I, note that the critical battle enabling the British Field Marshal Edmund Allenby to wrest control of the Holy Land from the Turks occurred at Megiddo. Armageddon, the mount of Megiddo, according to the New Testament book of Revelation, is once again to host one of the world's major armies in a immense conflict between East and West.

Our final stop of the day was Mount Carmel. In mainstream Jewish, Christian and Islamic thought, it is Elijah that is indelibly associated with the mountain, and he is regarded as having sometimes resided in a grotto on the mountain. In the Books of Kings, Elijah is described as challenging 450 prophets of a particular Baal to a contest at the altar on Mount Carmel to determine whose deity was genuinely in control of the Kigdom of Israel.

What a great day of traveling. Hope you are enjoying the blog!