ISRAEL DAY 3-SUN. OCT. 18, 2015

Today wasn't as busy but we were kept active. Our bus driver needed to turn around and did it in the middle of a major road.  😳. Needless to say that was not an ideal way to begin the day.  We did drive through Cana the town where Jesus turned water into wine for a wedding ceremony.  We saw a couple of unique marked businesses.  "The Miracle Coffee Shop" along with "Cana Wedding Wine" were two that we saw.  Next onto Zippori where we saw some magnificent mosaic floors.  They were well preserved due to earthquakes that covered them up but didn't destroy them.  This must have been a fairly wealthy area or business people since some were quite large.

We did learn that a pomegranate has 316 seeds the same as the commandments for the Jews.  There were 365 for what not to do and 248 for what to do.  We aren't sure we wish to actually count the seeds of a naturally grown pomegranate.  The Talmud or book of how to actually observe the rules was probably written or edited here.  

Nazareth was our next stop with The Church of the Annunciation which is supposed to be somewhere near the spot where the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary to tell her she was to be the mother of the Savior.  They figure this area was a very humble village where folks lived in cave type dwellings.  Therefore there is a cave type dwelling under this huge church in commemeration of this event.  

We also went on Mount Precipice and overlooked the area. Mount Tabor and especially the fertile valley below give you a good expanse of the area.  There were also 3 towns that make up about 120,000 population but from here didn't look that expansive.   Many wars have also been fought in the now very productive agriculture area.

Our last spot for today was Hill of Megiddo where we saw 25 layers of history and archeology.  We did see stables, gates, a granary as well as a water system that was protected by a tunnel that they built.  They needed to make sure the water supply was not visible or an enemy would be able to take them over.  There were 180 steps getting in and 80 steps to return.  It was well thought out and well done.  

  This is something that was on a t-shirt.