Tourism Archives - Page 76 of 95

Wednesday Roundup

Shmuel Browns shares some photos from his recent hike of Nahal Darga, which he calls “Israel’s most extreme and challenging” hike.

BAS: “Named by The Sunday Times as one of the world’s top ten walks, the Lycian Way hiking trail weaves along 300 miles of Turkey’s southern coastline through hundreds of archaeological sites.”

Leen Ritmeyer has word of an expansion to the Davidson Center in the excavations south of the Temple Mount.

The audio files are now online for Bryant Wood’s recent lecture series on “Archaeology and the Conquest: New Evidence on an Old Problem.”

Wayne Stiles: “Passover and Easter bring to mind pictures of the Messiah—both for Jews and for Christians. The Mount of Olives echoes these hopes from its slopes.”

The Washington Post reports on a battle in Israel to save the ancient Canaan dog.

Israel’s Supreme Court rejected a left-wing petition against the City of David Archaeological Park.

The article notes that “the City of David site receives around 450,000 visitors a year, up from 2,000 in 2001.”

Craig Evans writes about the Archaeological Evidence for Jesus. The accompanying photos are disappointing.

The Elvis Presley® Holy Land Tour is now taking sign-ups. In addition to stops at the Sea of Galilee and Western Wall, the tour will stop at the “infamous Elvis Inn Restaurant in Abu Ghosh – an Elvis-
themed diner and souvenir shop popular with tourists from around the world.”

HT: Joseph Lauer

Tagged Jerusalem, Tourism, Turkey

Weekend Roundup

Using satellite images, a researcher has identified potentially 9,000 new sites in northeastern Syria.

“With these computer science techniques, however, we can immediately come up with an enormous map which is methodologically very interesting, but which also shows the staggering amount of human occupation over the last 7,000 or 8,000 years.”

The Jezreel Expedition “just released three-dimensional LiDAR models detailing the site’s architecture and ancient landscape taken from recently collected LiDAR data.”

The spring season at Tel Burna has ended.

A writer for the Detroit Free Press describes one day on a dig at Khirbet Qeiyafa.

A New York Times article describes problems facing archaeologists returning to Iraqi sites.

Travelujah tells the “beautiful and tragic” story of Naharayim and Peace Island.

Joe Yudin visits Chorazin this week.

The Winter 2012 issue of DigSight is now online (pdf). Topics include: The “Jesus Family Tomb”
Revisited, The Oldest Egyptian Reference to Israel?, Recent Sightings, and Upcoming Events.

James Tabor: “Discovery TV has confirmed that the one hour special titled ‘The Resurrection Tomb’
will air on Thursday, April 5th, at 10pm EST.”

Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus, the previous work by Lois Tverberg and co-author Ann Spangler, is
available for $3.99 for Kindle for a few more days.

HT: ANE-2, Joseph Lauer, Jack Sasson

Chorazin from the west

Tagged Excavations, Galilee, Jezreel Valley, Syria, Tourism, Weekend Roundup

Questions and Answers at Neot Kedumim

An article in Haaretz gives a little history and suggests a few reasons to put Neot Kedumim on your list of places to go.

Why for example, one might wonder, did that forefather of all forefathers Abraham camp under the “oak of Moreh” when he, Sarah and their nephew Lot first came to this land? Is there significance to the oak? A deeper story behind the simple tale?
Have you always wanted to know why the children of Israel used the hyssop plant to brush paint on their doorposts when leaving Egypt? Or maybe you are one of those ancient history buffs more interested in why the Roman soldiers used the very same hyssop – dipped in vinegar – to quench Jesus’ thirst when he was on the cross?
And where on earth could one look for the answers to such questions?
Look no further than magical Neot Kedumim, Israel’s biblical landscape reserve, where the physical setting of the bible has been recreated on 625 acres teeming with everything from the majestic cedar of Lebanon to the scrappy hyssop bush.
[…]
One can rest in the shade of a willow around “Solomon’s Pool,” traipse around “Jotham’s Garden”, draw water from an ancient cistern, and then stop for a biblical themed lunch (which needs to be organized in advance) at “Abraham’s Tent.” Don’t expect tomatoes in your salad here, or any eggplant dishes, or, for that matter, any food not around when Rachel and Rebecca were in the kitchen. Sorry kiwi enthusiasts. And no surprise here: the restaurant is kosher.
Depending on the season, other activities offered at Neot Kedumim might include harvesting grain on a threshing floor, plowing and sowing a field, and plucking olives or operating an authentic olive press. Some activities such as shepherding, learn to write like Torah scribe and parchment preparation, and tree planting involve extra charges.

The full article is here. We recommended a visit several months ago. If you would like answers to some of the questions in the article but can’t wait for a visit, the books produced by Neot Kedumim (listed here) are the place to start.

“Solomon’s Pool” at Neot Kedumim

Tagged Tourism

Weekend Roundup

Joe Yudin’s weekly travel column suggests a way to get a taste of everything in a one-day hike in the Golan.

Looters searching for treasure mentioned in the Copper Scroll uncovered a mikveh near Modiin before they were arrested.

The “Million Dollar shekel” actually sold for 1.1 million at a New York auction. This sets a record for the sale of a Judean coin.

“The Israel Nature and Parks Authority (INPA) will open 22 of its nature reserves and national parks for free to the public for a couple weeks in honor of Nature and Heritage Conservation Week.”

Haaretz profiles a 20-year plan to publish every ancient inscription ever discovered in Israel. The photo that accompanies the story shows one of the most easily accessible inscriptions, at the base of the first lamppost in Jerusalem, just inside Jaffa Gate.

Norma Franklin, co-director of the Jezreel Expedition, is interviewed on the LandMinds radio show (part 1, part 2).

The IAA chairman is unhappy about the destruction of antiquities on the Temple Mount.

A U.S. archaeological team is back excavating in Iraq.

ASOR is making progress in its efforts to digitize its archives. Here is a direct link to hundreds of thumbnails from the collection of Nelson Glueck.

Significant discussion continues about Talpiot Tomb B. If you’ve fallen behind, the best place to catch up is with James McGrath’s recent roundup. The preliminary report has been updated a third time.

The Bible and Interpretation has a single entry point for their dozens of articles published over the years related to the James Ossuary and the Jehoash Inscription.

I doubt that there are many tours of Israel that do as well as Insight for Living in sharing their experiences with the world.

ASOR rounds up the news in the broader world of archaeology.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Jack Sasson

Tagged Jerusalem, Jezreel Valley, Mesopotamia, Tourism, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup

Bryant Wood has written a short summary of the 2009 and 2010 excavation seasons at Khirbet el-Maqatir, a site he believes may be biblical Ai.

Of the Talpiot Tomb, Richard Bauckham has a detailed examination of the four-line inscription, concluding that it does not have anything to do with Jesus or early Christianity but is nonetheless a very interesting ossuary inscription. Paleobabble observes that there is nothing in the “Jesus Discovery” related to Jesus or early Christianity. Those interested in reading about the first “Jesus tomb” in Talpiot can access a 2006 issue of Near Eastern Archaeology on the subject for free.

The Maps of the Zucker Holy Land Travel Manuscript have been digitized and put online by the University of Pennsylvania. The map was made in the late 1600s.

John Monson’s lecture on “Physical Theology: The Bible in its Land, Time, and Culture” at the Lanier Theological Library last month is now online.

Wayne Stiles visits the Mount of Beatitudes, Tel Dan, and Beth Shean. He provides an interesting quotation from George Adam Smith about Beth Shean, written in 1896: “There are few sites which promise richer spoil beneath their rubbish to the first happy explorer with permission to excavate.”

How right he was!

Joe Yudin describes a favorite hike in lower Galilee.

Turkey claims that Roman mosaics at a university in Kentucky were stolen in the 1960s and should be returned.

The Roman ruins in Palmyra are apparently being threatened by the Syrian army.

Greece is re-burying ruins because of a lack of funds.

HT: Jack Sasson, Joseph Lauer

Triumphal arch of Palmyra
(source, with 30 free photos of the site)

Tagged Greece, Resources, Syria, Tomb of Jesus, Tourism, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Temple Mount Model at Christ Church, Jerusalem

A model of the Temple Mount (Haram esh-Sharif) made by Conrad Schick in 1873 has been put on permanent display at the Heritage Center of Christ Church in Jerusalem. From Haaretz:

The model was made 140 years ago by the architect and archaeologist Conrad Schick, whose work in Jerusalem was supported by the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews. Its details reveal that its creator had access to places where no Western scholar of his day was allowed.
“Every time they dug a hole in the Temple Mount, he ran there to examine it,” said Prof. Haim Goren of Tel Hai Academic College, an expert on Schick’s work.
Schick, who made the model in an orphanage’s woodworking workshop where he taught, crafted it for display at the 1873 Vienna World’s Fair. It’s four meters long and three meters wide.
Like many of Schick’s models, this one had dozens of parts that could be dismantled to show inner, underground areas.
“It’s not only beautiful, it’s also an important research tool, because it was built by a man who visited every pit and understood the topography in a way we can’t fathom,” Gibson said.

The full story is here. You can read more about Conrad Schick at a website dedicated to him. They have many photos of the model at Christ Church, his 1879 model of the Temple Mount, his models at the Schmidt’s Girls School, and others.

Temple Mount model by Conrad Schick. (Photo source)

Tagged Jerusalem, Tourism