EGYPT: Day 1

So I have a lot to catch up on. I am going to post half of my Egypt stuff today, let you all read it, then post the other half later.

9.17

We had breakfast earlier than usual which wouldn’t have been a problem except I was up really late the night before. There are always two buses for field trips determined by which of the two religion classes you belong to. Instead of tackling the drive in one day, we stopped at a few places.

Tel Beersheba – This is where Abraham dug a well and made an oath with King Abimelech. It is also one of the major spots on “The Patriarchs Way.” It marked the southern border of the Israelite kingdom. One of the cool parts about this place was the four horned altar, based on an existing altar found there, on which people could hold to in case of involuntary manslaughter to escape the avengers and gain a fair trial.

Wilderness of Zin overlook – We watched a movie about the great rift valley and the geography of the area. Then we went to the top of the building and took pictures overlooking this huge valley of the Wilderness of Zin (Sin) is where the Children of Israel wandered for 40 years.

Avdat – This was my favorite stop of the day. Avdat was an ancient Nabataean city. Nabataeans were involved in the spice trade and this city was an important stop for that. Avdat was maintained by the Romans and later by the Byzantines who built Christian structures. One of the interesting features of the Byzantine construction is a cross-shaped baptismal font.

After these stops, we travelled to the Yotvata Kibbutz. The people there are involved in dairy and date harvesting. We got a tour of the entire complex and got to eat some of the local dates. After this we had delicious food at the Kibbutz’s cafeteria for dinner. For those of you who don’t know what a kibbutz is, it’s basically a socialist Jewish colony. We then took a short drive to another kibbutz to stay the night.