Tag Archives: Israel

May 7 2011

Nazareth – 9. More old city streets and market


Heading back on the main road to Nazareth’s main city centre as it was very hot today and need to get another bottle of water.

This alleyway near one of the youth hostels I was staying has a drain at street level, this sounds primitive but this path is very old as its intended so donkeys can relieve themselves and can be flushed away into the drains.

On one of the city tours I was on, our guide told us that these diagonal sections on corners of streets are there so men cannot use the corner as a toilet, a design feature since the bible times!

In the week I was there between the Jewish holiday of Pesach (Passover) and Easter, there were quite a few visitors to Nazareth but it wasn’t that busy, being the wrong side of the country (ie: people are in Jerusalem)

On the left as well as more fruit and vegetables and familiar western food products, there is someone with 2 litre coca cola bottles with a different coloured liquid in them for sale, locally made olive oil.  One the right Nazareth’s famous White Mosque has some of it side entrances leading onto the market, I don’t now much about the typical building layouts of Islamic holy places, so this entrance for funerals was quite surprising!

This gent is the Imam of the mosque seems friendly and also runs a shop next door  to the White mosque.

A lot of butchers have a specially refridgerated van for transporting meat, here this Nazarene market trader brings in meat on the back seat of a beat up Renault 5.

Fluffy yellow chicks in a box!  can you tell its Easter?

Pork for sale? In Israel?   You can tell there are a lot of Christian Arabs and secular Muslims who visit this butchers shop!
Next the Spice shop, and the various types of churches around Nazareth…

1. Arrival at the city – 2. Staying in the old city – 3. The modern day Nazarene carpenter – 4. Where Jesus first preached – 5. Religious vehicles in Nazareth – 6. Mary’s Well and the Bath house – 7. The precipice – 8. On top of the Precipice hill – 9. More old city streets and market – 10. The spice shop – 11. Churches from A to Z or Alpha to Omega – 12. The Basilica church – 13. Easter service at the Basilica


May 6 2011

Nazareth – 8. Ontop of the Precipice hill

After spending a while getting some pictures and pondering what it was like with Jesus had upset some people in the synagogue thinking he had said blasphemy, I thought I would climb up the side of the hill.

I always think of Jesus as being a strong and assertive young man, it didn’t occur to me before the crucifixion that he could get easily lynched and taken up to this hill by a mob.  I wonder if they were having a heated debate on theology whilst walking from the temple, and some of the folk got nasty.

At the foot of the hill there is a zigzag road which has been blocked off to stop people driving up there, on the other side is a road for coaches to take tourists up here.

The mast you can see in the distance is part of a peace monument.

I will mention this peace monument another time, as it has some similarities to the ones I have seen in Jerusalem and Sderot.

Up the top is a simple path that encircles to the top of the hill with plenty of trees and wild flowers here, there is a toilet block which was shut (oh well plenty of bushes!)  and a small kiosk that looks out to the view point that heads south.

This was definitely worth the long walk – the grey ‘field’ thing is actually a large water reservoir, there is another 3 small ones in view.   In the distance is mount Tabor, this hill is mentioned a few times in the scriptures and also is considered one of several locations of Jesus’s transfiguration.  To the right in the distance is Megiddo (Armageddon)   Wonder if this is a safe place to watch the final battle of the end of the world? 🙂

With this view it was nice to just stay up for an hour, I would of stayed longer but I only brought a small bottle of water and it was a hot day, the nearest petrol station is back in town about 3 or 4 kilometers away.

Looking eastwards.  I got chatting to some American Christians here, its easily to getting chatting with other Christians about the bible and Jesus’s escape from people who tried to throw him off the hill.

Down here is the building site next a large hotel and conference centre where I took pictures from the previous story.

More antics around Nazareth coming soon! Also Jesus’s first miracle in Cana, and Armegeddon the battle ground of the past and stage for the end of the world!

1. Arrival at the city – 2. Staying in the old city – 3. The modern day Nazarene carpenter – 4. Where Jesus first preached – 5. Religious vehicles in Nazareth – 6. Mary’s Well and the Bath house – 7. The precipice – 8. On top of the Precipice hill – 9. More old city streets and market – 10. The spice shop – 11. Churches from A to Z or Alpha to Omega – 12. The Basilica church – 13. Easter service at the Basilica


May 2 2011

Nazareth – 7. The precipice

This was maybe 3 or 4 miles walk from the centre of town, the precipice was something I have read about, its the hill in Nazareth where people tried to throw Jesus off the hill after hearing him speak, thinking it was blasphemy.

The hostel was a bit boring, I got chatty to various people, including the staff there and mostly families staying and few other people who were on their way out, but there were no chances to go and explore places of the bible with any other Christians, as hostels are usually great places to make friends, especially when I have been to some in France, Iceland and US.

No matter, I left my iPod at home, so it was a good way to enjoy a week long break from work and see some sights.

I went off a road to a car park where there was some construction going on, hoping to get some good shots of the hill.

I walked towards this shed on the left, then I saw a couple of fierce guard dogs were there…

Taking pictures can be awkward on your own and without a tripod, I tried using this abandoned car to stand my camera on and do a timed shot…

I kind of got hidden by the wildlife though!

Here is some better pictures of the precipice:-

As below this passage talks about Jesus was threatened up here:-

Luke 4 : 28 -30  All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this.  They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff.  But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

I am next going to head up and see how much of the Galilee is visible from up there:-

1. Arrival at the city – 2. Staying in the old city – 3. The modern day Nazarene carpenter – 4. Where Jesus first preached – 5. Religious vehicles in Nazareth – 6. Mary’s Well and the Bath house – 7. The precipice – 8. On top of the Precipice hill – 9. More old city streets and market – 10. The spice shop – 11. Churches from A to Z or Alpha to Omega – 12. The Basilica church – 13. Easter service at the Basilica


May 1 2011

Nazareth – 6. Mary’s Well and the Bath house

The well sits right next to a busy junction and is close to the Greek church of annunciation.

Its meant to be the place that Mary was drawing water when the angel told her she was to be with child.   There isn’t anything in the scriptures that mentions this arch specifically though.

In fact Mary’s well is an iconic part of Nazareth as it appears on official government letterheads and logos, including this man hole cover 🙂

The back of the monument.

Imagine if you owned a small shop and you did some maintenance on the building to find an ancient bath house was underneath that may date from the time of Jesus?   Thats what happened the owners of this building!   I didn’t visit this place as its only by tour, so I would have to wait and find some other people to share the NIS120 fee to visit.   Looks interesting though!!  http://www.nazarethbathhouse.org/en/

1. Arrival at the city – 2. Staying in the old city – 3. The modern day Nazarene carpenter – 4. Where Jesus first preached – 5. Religious vehicles in Nazareth – 6. Mary’s Well and the Bath house – 7. The precipice – 8. On top of the Precipice hill – 9. More old city streets and market – 10. The spice shop – 11. Churches from A to Z or Alpha to Omega – 12. The Basilica church – 13. Easter service at the Basilica


Apr 29 2011

Nazareth – 4. Where Jesus first preached

In the old city of Nazareth, after going around a maze of streets, I came across this exciting building, here is the synagogue church, the site of where Jesus first started preaching.  Its owned by the Greek Catholic church built by crusaders in 12th century.

Luke 4: 14-19 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside.  He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.  He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

I can make out the latter part of this sign in Arabic, Hebrew and French that says no photographs.   Oops. 🙂

Matthew 13 : 53 When Jesus had finished these parables, he moved on from there.  Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. “Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?” they asked.  “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas?  Aren’t all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?”  And they took offence at him.    But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town and in his own home.”

Its only when reading this now I can see why Jesus chose to leave Nazareth.

Outside of the iron gates of the Synagogue Church is a labyrinth of narrow alleys mostly without thoroughfare for cars, here there is plenty of tourist souvenirs here of of course!

After some people in the synagogue got upset with Jesus’s teaching they tried to push him off a hill.   I will show this place shortly.

1. Arrival at the city – 2. Staying in the old city – 3. The modern day Nazarene carpenter – 4. Where Jesus first preached – 5. Religious vehicles in Nazareth – 6. Mary’s Well and the Bath house – 7. The precipice – 8. On top of the Precipice hill – 9. More old city streets and market – 10. The spice shop – 11. Churches from A to Z or Alpha to Omega – 12. The Basilica church – 13. Easter service at the Basilica


Apr 27 2011

Nazareth – 3. The modern day Nazarene carpenter

Before I came here, I wondered if there were practicing carpenters in this town now like Jesus’s earthly stepfather.

Turns out woodwork is very much part of Nazareth’s businesses today, although it is an Arab city – there are Jews that live in a closeby town called Nazareth Illit (‘Upper’ in Hebrew) which is a modern place only around since the 1950s.

This is one of fourteen carpentry shops, fairly standard sort of methods and tools, with lathes, routers and jigsaws.

Usual kind of woodwork, interior doors, shelves, coffins (!) etc.

The panels on these doors look extremely precisely done.

The wooden nativity sets popular with tourists made of olive wood often seen for sale tend to be made in Bethlehem though.

1. Arrival at the city – 2. Staying in the old city – 3. The modern day Nazarene carpenter – 4. Where Jesus first preached – 5. Religious vehicles in Nazareth – 6. Mary’s Well and the Bath house – 7. The precipice – 8. On top of the Precipice hill – 9. More old city streets and market – 10. The spice shop – 11. Churches from A to Z or Alpha to Omega – 12. The Basilica church – 13. Easter service at the Basilica


Apr 26 2011

Nazareth – 2. Staying in the old city

There are three main Youth Hostels in Nazareth, and they are all very close to each other in Nazareth’s old city.

I stayed here for 1st night, this is the ground floor of a local chap’s house, who happens to be the local policeman, and jolly nice gent he is.   The local station is also quite close by too.

Here I only spotted one other traveler, an Italian called Michael who was very friendly and shared with me half his plate of bread, cheese and olives, and spoke little English.   This place provided free tea and coffee and a shared kitchen, and I have started to become quite fond of Arabic style coffee.

When I was about to leave I spotted some interesting pets crawling around the front yard!  Good job I didn’t head out to the loo too early on the morning as I might of trod on them!

The second and third night I stayed in the Al Atabeh guest house.   This had a quite good sized open court yard, with plenty of outside seating.   This was slightly cheaper, with a large dorm room with bunks for about 10 people.   There is a bar where some food can be ordered but no shared kitchen.

As the other picture shows there was a decent bit of rain here, and in this lounge the roof started to leak with water running down the walls, above the coloured drapes the ceiling is only a flimsy corrugated plastic job.   Leaking roofs are quite a bit problem in Israel, as a lot of them are flat and in not so good condition, so this wasn’t too much of a surprise.

I didn’t like that the showers are awful even by middle east standards, water just goes out under the door into the yard, there was nowhere to hang up your clothes whilst inside to keep them dry and clean, and the lights mysteriously turned off halfway through, this meant I had to wrap a towel around me and get it out and press the light switch, but it wasn’t someone playing pranks, it was just broken, probably wet had got inside the electrics.    I also didn’t like overly political stickers inside the bathrooms.

 

The last hostel above and left is the Fauzi Azar is by far the best, unfortunately I could not get a bed here as it was full.   I did however take advantage of breakfast and two hour tour of the city for 35 Shekels which was terrific!   This grand old house is beautiful and well kept.  It has been voted the best youth hostel in Israel, and its not hard to see why.

Check out:-

www.abusaeedhostel.com

www.alatabeh.com

www.fauziazarinn.com

 

1. Arrival at the city – 2. Staying in the old city – 3. The modern day Nazarene carpenter – 4. Where Jesus first preached – 5. Religious vehicles in Nazareth – 6. Mary’s Well and the Bath house – 7. The precipice – 8. On top of the Precipice hill – 9. More old city streets and market – 10. The spice shop – 11. Churches from A to Z or Alpha to Omega – 12. The Basilica church – 13. Easter service at the Basilica

Apr 25 2011

Nazareth – 1. Arrival at the city

I have always hoped Michael Palin could do journals around the holy land one day, until this happens I try and blog on the places of the life of Jesus myself.  I am tired by the attitudes of the media and fellow Brits who try to slander Israel and accuse it of being a ‘Apartheid’ state amongst other things.  I set out to the central Galilee city of Nazareth, to see what it was like for Jesus to have grown up there, glimpses of places from the bible, how the Arab people there live in the centre of the Galilee and how different it is from Jerusalem.

Just before getting off the bus which took me from Jerusalem, I asked some people next to me if this was the right place to get off, and there didn’t seem to be a proper bus station, just a stop by the main road.   This Arab couple were really friendly and were happy oblige to walk with me from the street through some narrow streets uphill through the old city towards my hostel.

Jesus frequently went to and fro from here or the greater part of Galilee to Jerusalem and Bethlehem.  When you live some distance from your family this must be a lot of effort to travel often.

This provocative message to Christians stands out a junction heading north towards the Synagogue where Jesus first preached.  Behind is the tall turret of the famous huge and grand looking Bisilica Church.   It says “and whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, it will never be accepted of him, and in the hereafter he will be one of the losers. – Holy Quran”

I have a better message though: Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14 : 6

I have seen this on some guides before, and all the research I did suggested Nazareth is a safe city to visit, and it is too.  I had a number of worries though to do with the busy time of year.  I booked this trip at rather the last minute as its in between Pesach and Easter, and with two different holidays, the buses are not running for some of those days, Easter making it more busy for Christian visitors, and I had hoped to visit Tiberias but both youth hostels were fully booked, so was one of the main hostels in Nazareth, and I got myself one night booked but not for the other days, this needed a lot of prayer of exactly how to figure out where to stay….

Soon!  Different Youth Hostels, the Spice Mill, Thousands of Arab Israelis Christians in the streets at Easter, the church at Cana for weddings, today’s modern Nazarene carpenters and residents finding hidden wells in the back yards by accident!

1. Arrival at the city – 2. Staying in the old city – 3. The modern day Nazarene carpenter – 4. Where Jesus first preached – 5. Religious vehicles in Nazareth – 6. Mary’s Well and the Bath house – 7. The precipice – 8. On top of the Precipice hill – 9. More old city streets and market – 10. The spice shop – 11. Churches from A to Z or Alpha to Omega – 12. The Basilica church – 13. Easter service at the Basilica

Apr 17 2011

Back to Ramon Crater, camping in the Desert

Camping! I went and spent a weekend with some friends, two from the Netherlands, one South African and one Hispanic Jew who has been Israel for some years now.

Its funny in an age where we try to make our lives more complicated with technology and creature comforts we still want to escape to basics of living under a piece of canvas with just the bare minimum to enjoy being out in the open air.

The Dutch seem to be the most hardcore campers in Europe, and where as I have had a fair bit of experience in camping up in Yorkshire and the New Forest as a child, my friends from this part of Europe seem to be very savvy as using gas cookers and putting up tents.   In addition to that my friend from South Africa was brought in a farm so is very adept at outdoors living also.

I have been to this site before back in about August 2009.    This is inside the Ramon Crater in the middle of the Negev Desert.

Some people opt for a more sophisticated camping experience, needing proper showers.   We opted for a site just rocks and bushes to use the bog.

This site we passed on the way home, just being a bit cheeky using the toilets that were by the road.

Here you can park your tent on the ground or inside the bedouin style huts, which look nicely made.   There is a kids playground in the middle which stands out as a bit odd!

This picture I took out of the window of the car is not that great, but it was a small clip of a large shanty town style village, these are Druze, traveling Arab people who live Bedouin style today often by the side of busy roads.  They may have cars or camels or donkeys and often grow their own groups in their communities.