Borot Lotz and Beyond

The day dawned cold and early and we shivered out of our sleeping bags, ate a simple breakfast, and broke camp before beginning to explore the region.

*Warning: brace yourself for some Historical Geography geekiness.*

Borot Lotz:

"Built by the Israelites almost 3000 years ago, the water holes of Lotz continue to collect rainwater flowing off the mountains. During the season, flora of all kinds cluster around them en masse. Seventeen Israelite cisterns have been uncovered to date, along with fascinating remains from a 3000-year-old-house... It all began when King Solomon opened up trade with the Queen of Sheba. Solomon constructed fortresses along the main roads to protect merchant caravans."

Israel's Southern Landscapes by Aviva Ben-Am and Yisrael Shalem, p.161

"Moreover, Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate and at the Valley Gate and at the Angle, and fortified them. And he built towers in the wilderness and cut out many cisterns, for he had large herds, both in the Shephelah and in the plain, and he had farmers and vinedressers in the hills and in the fertile lands, for he loved the soil."

2 Chronicles 26:9-10

The couple hours spent exploring in this location where possibly my favorite part of the trip. We saw remains of 4-room houses, terracing, cisterns, and even a threshing floor, in the antiquities department.

We saw flowers of all sorts, sizes, and shapes in the flora department. We saw birds, bugs, and some pretty stinking cool fossils in the fauna department. Basically, it was lots of my favorite things, all wrapped up in one beautiful location.

Unfortunately, we had places to go and people to meet and were unable to linger long. Instead of heading back the way we came, we took a right on to the "main" road and headed for the Egyptian border. This is when the sketchy part of the journey began.

We had not gone far before we came to an army base. In fact, over the course of this trip, I came to the conclusion that the whole southern part of Israel is just one big army base. You can't drive 20km without passing a base, or a sign saying "Warning, firing range to your right. Stay on the road" or some such indication of the military presence. The road to Borot Lotz has and army base at either end of it, and is thus, I believe, only open on Shabbat. Fortunately for us, it was Shabbat.

At any rate, as we approached the base near the Egyptian border, we saw that there was a gate that was closed. Then we saw a soldier approaching. We asked if we could go through and told him we were going to Nessanna. He opened the gate and let us through, so we continued on our way, admiring the fantastic views of Egypt.

The road was narrow and windy, climbing into heights and falling back to the plain. It also had a tendency towards having barbed wire instead of patches where the sides of the road had been washed out. We saw one other civilian vehicle in the roughly 1.5 hours spent on the road, so it seems that it is not often frequented. We stopped at a couple lookout points, including Har Horsha, from which the oasis of Kadesh Barnea was visible.

We passed another army base and were nearly within sight of our goal when we came to another gate. It was secured by an odd juxtaposition of a fence post, a barrel, and some wire. Not locked. This time, there was no one around to open it, so we just let ourselves through, in the process knocking down a sign (facing the other side of the gate) which I'm pretty sure said something like "No Entrance." We were exiting, though, so it was of no concern to us.

We had not gone much farther when we spotted an IDF vehicle coming down the road towards us. They saw us too and wave at us to stop. They asked where we had come from and if we had crossed the barrier. We weren't sure of what barrier they meant, so we replied that yes, a soldier had let us through. They seemed satisfied with this answer and we all continued on our ways. Shortly after this again we saw a few soldiers off to the side of the road with their guns, making us fervently hope that it was indeed still a Shabbat and they weren't practicing in their firing ranges.

It was with a considerable amount of relief that we finally reached the main road by Nessanna/Nitzana.

Unfortunately, with our time constraints we could do more than wave at that Nabatean ruin as we passed. A little further on we came to Shivta (by another army base/firing range) where we were able to stop for a short visit. It has three churches, all of which are remarkably well preserved.

After Shivta we raced east and northward, in an attempt to pick up my sister and her friend near Jericho by 3pm. We stopped at a couple lookout points and saw the Zohar Fortress from afar. It has now been added to my list of places to visit. The more I see, the more I see there is to see.

After picking up people we headed south again, searching for a camp site. We found one near the little crater. We watched the sun set over the desert hills before setting up the tent and finding wood for a fire. The evening joys included s'mores and Bedouin tea. Can't beat camping! We fell asleep to the sound of Perelandra being read, accompanied by our rowdy Israeli neighbors singing and talking late into the night.

Map of the routes of the day:

Life and Breaks

September 20, 2009

This past week has been just a little bit crazy. Part of that craziness has included the impossibility of finding a good internet connection anywhere. Campus is always a little iffy, and now our ISP at our apartment has apparently decided we don't exist and therefore will not be allowed to access the internet. These sorts of things have conspired to keep me from updating my blog. *gasp* "Oh, the humanity!" as Adria would say.

Anyway...let's see if I can find a few points of interest to recount.

Most of the week I have spent searching diligently for Beit Aven. "Clearly a Biblical sight of significant proportions," you think, having never actually heard of it. Hint: Look here. That might give you an idea of what we're trying to find. It's not that simple, though. There are several issues involved in the search, such as...

1. When the Bible uses the term "Beit Aven" is it always refering to an actual town named "Beit Aven", or is it using it as a derogatory name (House of Iniquity) for some other place with its own name (like Bethel)?

2. What is the proper way to understand the geographical references given in the Hebrew Text?

3. Beit Aven is close to Ai, Bethel, and Michmash, which would seem to make it easier to find...if we were certain where Ai, Bethel, and Michmash were located.

4. Beit Aven is somewhere in the West Bank, which makes it difficult to do any further archaeological research. But that's ok, because

5. We're not necessarily sure of when Beit Aven should have been occupied. It depends on how you date the conquest of Joshua...and that's a whole other issue.

6. Add to all this that people have been searching for Beit Aven for over 100 years now. At least 8 different sights have, at one time or another, been put forth as a possible location for Beit Aven. Most of them have been discounted, but there are still a few that are fiercely argued for and against among scholars.

That should give you an idea of what my semester is going to look like. :) We'll be done looking for Beit Aven after this week, but other dilemmas are yet to come.

Outside of school things have been a little crazy too.

I went with a couple friends to David's Citadel this week. It's sort of a museum/park, and I'd never been inside before. It's really quite beautiful inside,

with grass, lovely panoramic views of the city, and good information on the history of Jerusalem from ancient to modern times.

One of my flat-mates had a family friend show up, needing a place to crash for a few days. She's a nice lady, and we've enjoyed having her, but it was a bit of a surprise and added to the chaos just a bit. The night she came, 3 other people were over at my house, and the juice man came. Some how there must be a rule that Thursday nights must be chaotic.

Here in Jerusalem it's "Holiday-Central." The Muslim month of Ramadan is just coming to and end, accompanied by much feasting and rejoicing. At the same time the Jews are celebrating their New Year - Rosh Hashannah.

(Apparently, it's traditional to have round challah for Rosh Hashanah. I don't know what it normally looks like, but this is my attempt.)

Yom Kippur is next week, and then Sukkot will be upon us in no time...which means the rains are coming. In fact, they are here. Apparently it rained a little in Jerusalem yesterday, which is an occasion for great rejoicing.

I, however, was not in Jerusalem to appreciate that rain. Another of my flat-mates rented a car this weekend so she could see "the pretty" outside of Jerusalem before city life drove her crazy. Yesterday she kindly took the rest of us along on an adventure.

We got a little bit of a late start...which was ok. It was Shabbat, after all! We headed down south of Jerusalem, skirted Hebron, waved at Arad, and stopped at Mampsis/Mamshit, one of the Nabatean cities of the lower Negev. The Nabateans were really a facinating people, and they left some impressive ruins.

(This is the "Market" which reminded me of the fairgrounds back home...)

Of those, Petra is of course the most famous, and the most spectacular, but Mampsis was fun to visit. We ate lunch there before exploring. They had some "impressive" staircases, a dam, a couple churches with some nice mosaics, a fresco, and a couple sweet stables. I would live there, if I were a horse. (I'm not, for the record.)

From there we drove to Be'er Sheva where we first stopped to get a new rental car. The breaks on ours were making a funny sound...so with remarkable ease (especially considering the holiday) we traded it for a different one.

We paused again to get ice cream and then proceeded to a park commemorating the last successful cavalry charge in history: the Charge of the Australian Light Horse Brigade. The park had one statue and a couple informational signs to commemorate the event. They also had some pretty sweet playground equipment. I would play there if I were a kid. For that matter, I would play there if I were an adult. Actually...I might have made Adria ride the merry-go-round with me... :)

We then set off in search of a Turkish bridge (build in 1914-1915 for World War II, according to our map...hmmm....) We some how managed to totally miss it as we drove past the first time...so we back-tracked, looking for wadis that might possibly have Turkish bridges over them. We stopped at 2 such places, parking the car in random locations and tramping off over hills and around trees, trying to spy a bridge. We were close to giving up when, "Oh hey, is THAT the bridge?"

In retrospect, I really don't know how we missed it so completely the first time driving past. Or how we could have thought it would have been over those little tiny wadis that we found. Oh well, we had a good walk, and we did eventually find it.

We then scurried off to Ashkelon to watch the sunset on the ocean. It was beautiful.

We had to stop for dinner, though, before heading back up into the hills. Cameron had been going on and on about wanting french fries...so we stopped at the first McDonald's we found. Oh the joys of greasy salty food.

Now it's Sunday. Luckily for me, the majority of the students are off on a field study today, which means that now that breakfast is done, I don't have to do much until I start on dinner. I might even get to go to church!