wanderings

This gorge is known as the Wadi Qilt. "Wadi" is the Hebrew name for a cut valley or water drainage basin, especially one that has a very steep "v" shape formation. I am learning a lot of geography now and I am going to attempt a brief synopsis that may help you understand what I will be talking about in the future and how so much diversity can be present in such a small space. Here goes! - There is a north-south line that runs through the country that is the natural dividing line for water flow either to the Mediterranean or to the Dead Sea. This is just like the Rocky or Appalachian mountains where to the east of the range water flows one way and to the west water flows to another (in U.S. either the Mississippi or an ocean). There appears to be no special name for this ridge so for class purposes we simply refer to it as watershed ridge. This ridge takes on special significance because it also coincides to some degree with a major shift in rock type that I mentioned in an earlier post. Roughly to the east of the ridge is wasteland, near useless chalk as the predominant rock type that cannot be easily used for building or producing good soil. It also does not preserve underground aquifers so springs and wells accessible to the ancients are rare. Also since weather comes from the west, the western side of the watershed ridge gets much more rain than the eastern side. So combine bad soil with little rain and you get land like you see in the picture above, beautiful but not very productive for settled farming. The land is useful for sheep and goat grazing and this is what it is used for to this day. So this north south dividing line also is home to a great line of cities that in Biblical times and before settled on this high ground of the watershed ridge to reap the benefits of living on the border between the two lands. Cities centered around this ridge include (roughly from north to south) Shiloh, Bethel, Ai, Mizpah, Ramah, Michmash, Gibeon, Geba, Gibeah, Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Hebron. The challenge of the ages is that all of these cities had limited access to international trading routes out of the central hill country. To the East Jericho was the hub to get across the Jordan River and there were three major routes to get there. To the west Gezer was a major city that provided acess to the coast. Without Gezer and its accompanying highway many of these cities had no acess to the coast. Great battles were fought with all of this in mind. I think that is enough for now...

As for this picture(If any of you are still with me) this is the valley facing Jericho. Our group hiked from this point about two miles into Jericho along the faint path visible on the left hand side of the gorge a little more than half way down. Also on the left a channel is visible. This is a Roman aqueduct build by Herod to bring water from several springs into Jericho. The aquaduct is still maintained by locals for supplying water (I am not sure but I think just for watering flocks). We actually saw some guys with shovels cleaning it out as we were hiking.

This is the same gorge directly below where the previous photo was taken. You can notice the much greener look of the wadi bottom. There was a decent amount of seasonal water flowing through the bottom of the canyon. In the back of the picture you see St. George's monastery rising out of the hillside. All through these hills you find remains of places where people have lived over the millennia. The desert is the home of many Biblical narratives and a favorite home of monastics starting around 300AD. This monastery memoralizes Elijah's flight to the desert where he was fed by ravens. Never mind that the Bible clearly states that he went east of the Jordan so this is absolutely not where he hid but it is a tradition that started 1700 years ago so what are you going to do?

Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, "As the LORD the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word." And the word of the LORD came to him, "Depart from here and turn eastward and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. You shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there." So he went and did according to the word of the LORD. He went and lived by the brook Cherith that is east of the Jordan. And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. And after a while the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land. I Kings 17:1-7

This is the Old Testament site of Jericho. It is a "Tel" or ancient city mound. For thousands of years people built their homes out of mud brick that was continually breaking down and being replaced. So the mounds became quite high and the layers can be dated with pottery remains that are left from each respective time period. Jericho is one of those difficult sites where not much has been found supporting the biblical narrative. At the turn of the century the mud brick wall shown here was discovered and claimed to be the walls that God destroyed before Joshua. However the wall was later determined to be 1,000 years older than Joshua and the archeologist who did the second excavation (Kathleen Kenyon) claimed that the site was uninhabited in the time of Joshua. It is known that Kenyon was biased against finding support for scripture at the site but regardless, evidence is sparce to nonexistent for a settlement that would coincide with the Biblical narrative. However, as the pun goes: "tels don't tell all." The geography of the Bible is very reliable and lines up with what we know about the land today. Just because pottery was not found in the excavations that were done does not mean the site was uninhabited. There is no reason to abandon the Biblical account just because no record exists. Jericho is an oasis town and personally I have a hard time believing that it was ever unoccupied. Where there is water in a desert there are people.
A gate built by Solomon at Tel Gezer. This is his standard "six chamber gate." Often in the bible it talks about business being done in the city gate. Here is an example of the rooms in the gate where such things would take place. The trench in the middle is the sewer that drained out underneath the now missing road surface. We were not told why the sewer flows out the main gate but I would guess that it is for security purposes.
Sunset at Tel Gezer. The western gateway to the cities of the hill country. Thanks again for reading and posting everyone!