After we left Sha'arayim, we continued through the Elah Valley in the jeep!
All major road signs are in Hebrew, English and Arabic.
I believe we took this, as we were leaving Sha'arayim.
The jeep driver (we can't remember his name!) stopped here, and told us that there used to be a village on this hill - I believe it was called Sokho. There was some history to it ... I think it was destroyed by Arabs, but he did not give us many details and I cannot seem to find any other info online! If anyone is familiar with this place and story, please let us know :)
This fence is the "green line" ... the 1949 armstice border that Israel is being pressured to return to.
This was in the park where we went to see the cave of Adullam.
On the hill near the cave.
The view from the hill(?) of Adullam.
The road that is off in the distance behind Tommy, runs along the "green line". However, the stone marker for the border was only several feet to his left. It just goes to show how much space a pencil line on a map, takes up in real life :)
The city of Adullam is first mentioned in Genesis 38, where we read that Judah married a woman from there ... in Joshua 12, we learn that Adullam was one of the Canaanite cities that the children of Israel destroyed ... and in the books of Samuel and 1 Chronicles we are told that David went to the cave of Adullam when he was hiding from Saul.
One of the mouths of the cave.
Tommy is holding his blackberry and shining its flashlight on his face! It is incredible how bright that thing is :)
The cave was quite large ... we did not explore the whole thing.
Back out near the mouth of the cave.
Golden fields.
We saw quite a few vineyards.
Shepherds and flocks.
This is a thistle plant that is referred to in Song of Solomon, but I cannot remember the Hebrew name of it :(
This is a Columbarium cave.
It's also known as a dovecote.
This hole is in the top of the cave ... about 20 or 30 feet above the ground where we were standing. It used to be much smaller, but has erosion has caused a larger opening. People used to put food in the cave and lure the doves into the cave. Once they were in, they couldn't get back out, and would nest in the little cubby holes in the cave.
Avi and Dina.
This was the entrance/exit to the cave.
Another dovecote entrance ... we did not go into this one.
This is a recently discovered archaeological site. The ruins above ground are from a Byzantine church. Under the dirt are the remains of a Jewish synagogue with a beautiful Mosaic floor. Avi told us that he was saw it when it was uncovered and it was the most beautiful Mosaics. The problem was that Arabs started vandalizing the site, so they have covered it back up until they have an opportunity to explore it further. Under the synagogue there is a cave, and it is believed that the prophet Zechariah is buried here.
The church ruins.
The Byzantine-style cross.
On the synagogue.
And here are a few videos that we took while on the jeep.
