Day 3 !

Capernaum
Home of the apostle Peter and located along the coast of the Sea of Galilee. Peter's house, pictured below, is identified in the ruins of Capernaum and is literally a stone's throw away of the synagogue in that town. What happened to the town? Did you know that in 746 - 749AD there were a series of large earthquakes in Israel, which devastated cities made of stone, crashing columns over and causing people to sometimes just leave the area rather then rebuild?

It's an odd picture. Try to ignore the grey thing at the top, which is the bottom of a church that was built on top of it (of course). The round structure you see in the middle is the middle of Peter's house. The rings outside of the house were where the livestock were kept. Remember the story about the crippled man lowered through the roof that Jesus healed? It happened right here!

This is the synagogue where Jesus taught in Capernaum.

Missing it's roof and outer walls of course!

After Capernaum, we went to the Jordan River. This is not the place of Jesus' baptism. It just happens to be the deepest and widest part of the whole river, where people get baptized today. The Israeli government dams the river so that the water won't be wasted and the release is controlled, so maybe it used to be bigger. I was surprised how small it was! It runs from the Sea of Galilee all the way down to the Dead Sea. People in the Galilee area would have left Galilee and travelled by way of the King's Highway, which is now the West Bank and followed the Jordan River, for water and direction.

People getting baptized. Not me. I just put my hand in.....

It was beautiful - green and clear with lots of fish swimming around!

And below, the best falafel of my life....

On to Jerusalem. View from the mount - Jerusalem is in the middle of the mountain....

Hazy day - it's still very hot. 45 degrees at 1PM today. Which is unusual for this time of year.