The Foothills

So, way back in February when we rented that car, we went to the foothills (Shephelah) before we gave the car back to the rental company. We made it to the Valley of Elah, Bet Guvrin, Maresha, Lachish, and  a mosaic that is now covered. Shawn took most of the pictures so I asked him to comment on these photos!

This is over looking the Elah valley. This is where David challenged and defeated Goliath.

Inside the bath house [at Maresha], the servants could pour water through this opening, so as not to embarrass the modesty of the nude bathers. Not something you find in most Roman baths! Which lends itself to the interpretation that it was for Jewish bathers, who were much more protective of their modesty than their Graeco-Roman cohorts.

These next few photos are all part of an olive press.

This is a water cistern. Would you like to be the one that carved each of these steps by hand?

These are the remains of a house. The courtyard is here in the front, and the house surrounds.  The house probably dates to the period around the first century AD.

Each of house had a cistern underneath it. Because of the way the rock is, now it is a whole underground network of cisterns. It was really cool to walk through.

Off in the distance there is the remains of a crusader era church.

These beautiful murals decorate a Roman period tomb. Many of the themes in the pictures pertain to mythology.

Aren't these fish sweet?

Here is a better view of the crusader church.

There is also a beautifully preserved amphitheater at Bet Guvrin (Just on the other side of the highway from Maresha).

This is the guard chamber right at the gate of Lachish. Lachish was destroyed by Senacherib (and pictured beautifully in the monumental inscriptions he built at Nineveh, which are now on display at the British Museum). However, right before the siege, one of the commanders wrote several letters on pot shards that were discovered here.

This square rise was probably the base of the palace complex. 

This is called "The Ghost Oak" but I have no idea why. 

This isn't the best picture of the siege ramp, but there are still remains of the Assyrian siege ramp.

This is a beautiful mosaic floor that Israel doesn't have enough money to maintain, so they have already covered it up. We heard about it ahead of time, so I tried to take as many pictures of it as I could. It was a Roman/Byzantine colombarium (place for keeping pigeons). *Update* We've been told this was not the colombarium, but a church.

Awe, he is kind of a cute little pigeon, eh?

I kind of like scenes of lions killing other beasts. This one is pretty good.

Most countries would be over blown with pride at a mosaic this old and this well preserved. But Israel has so many of these, and this one is less significant then those at Zippori or Tabgha that they just don't have the money to display it or to preserve it. What an embarrassment of riches!

I didn't have time to give more information on this sites, but I recommend reading the wikipedia article about Maresha; and the short overview of Bet Guvrin at bibleplaces.com.