Well to be honest today was a short day. We started off by visiting Samuel's tomb. We had a beautiful view of this city, and were actually on one of the highest points around. We basically just listened in as our guide, Aton, described the history and landscape that surrounded us. Everything from the Scriptures to present day was mentioned. We were hoping that we could actually go into the tomb itself, but were unable to, since people were praying inside, and the site is considered a Muslim Holy place.
After we we were supposed to be a part of the Temple Mount Antiquities Sifting Project, and practically be a part a an archaeologically dig! What had happened (to make a long story short) is that When the Muslim's were wanting to put a mosque underground on the Temple Mount, they actually just started digging everything up ruining layers of history. What is interesting is that in Israel, if you want to do anything to build a house, to changing the layout in the land of anyway a archaeologist must be there overseeing the sight since every step you take you're practically stepping on a different piece of history. So what happened was that when the Muslims started digging, they took 400 truck loads of debris and threw it into a valley, leaving all this history there. After 5 years an organization was put together to collect those mounds of dirt and sifting through it all. And today we would have had the chance to sift through some of it, but we unable to. We'll be going back next week, which is great! So, basically all we did today was just collect information, and sit back and learn!
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
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