So today was another day in the field, and we traveled to Benjamin today both the North and south side. Here's a fun fact for you all reading, approximately 60% of all Biblical events occur in Benjamin, at least according to Doctor Wright.
We started our journey today in the barren wilderness on the east side of the mount of Olives, and suprisingly enough it rained. Rain and desert in september...you figure that one out. Anyways the desert had a beatuy of its own that can only been seen. Once we moved from the desert lookout points we moved to the New Testament city of Jericho. Basically all that we studied was Herod's winter palace, which was or would have been beautiful. Harod used many techniques to build his palace that added to the palaces beauty. We stayed in New Testament Jericho for about a half hour and then moved into Old Testament Jericho. The reason that there are 2 Jerichos is that Herod built his palace away from the OT site and so the people followed and formed a city around him. Anyways, OT Jericho was fascinating because we could see some of the original structures from when Joshua moved in and took over. The walls, or part of them were still standing after all this time. Old Testament Jericho is dated to 8000 B.C and is supposed to be the lowest point on the earth, how cool. Even more cool was that down inside where the old city used to be there was a watch tower that now stood 10 feet off the ground. In the center was a hole that was dug out with steps going verticly down for about 20 feet into the ground and on top was a cage. Well, some friends and I climbed on in and we got a cool picture of us stuck in this pit with the cage down, it made for a cool pic (which I will add later due to internet problems). Once we toured Old Jericho we had lunch and moved on. The last major site that we visited was the Old city of Gezer. This place was incredible because it landed on the Coastal plains and you could see Ashkelon, where the philistines used to be, Tel Aviv, and almost Jerusalem. The views today were spectacular and it made for the best field study yet. Anyways, I have a test to write tomorrow morning, and I think I should study. Until next time, thanks for reading, and God bless.