Jericho Field Trip

"The walls will tumble,
The walls will crumble. . .

One more mile to Jericho!"

I've had Hillary Duff's song "Jericho" stuck in my head all week. I don't even remember the real lyrics. . . Anyway, I went to Jericho today! We drove down into the Judean Wilderness-- 1,300 feet below sea level!

It turns out, there are a lot of Bible stories in Jericho, so get ready for a lot of history. . .

Coming in at 10,000 B.C, it is the oldest city in the world. I can't even imagine how old that really is.

The original Jericho is obviously ruins, but there are still some pieces left. These adorable dogs were just chillin' on the tel!

Below is a neolithic tower that is really really old. It was a lot bigger than the picture makes it look. I can't imagine how they built structures so large and so sturdy to last thousands of years.

We then saw the city wall. This wall was built after the children of Israel came and destroyed it, but if you look carefully in the bottom left of the picture there is a pile of mud and inside is light redish bricks. They believe this pile fell off the original wall, possibly when the walls came down in the story found in Joshua 6.

This is Elisha's Spring, or the Spring of Jericho. In 2 Kings 2:21 Elisha heals the waters at the source, which is right here in this picture. It's one of the few places in the bible where we know exactly where the story took place! This spring is the reason anyone could settle in the harsh desert of Jericho.

In Luke 19: 4-6 Zacchæus climbs a sycamore tree to see Christ. This is a Sycamore tree in Jericho.

Matthew 2:19-- Herod dies. In the center of the picture is the ruins of Herod's winter palace. He died here. In the top left there is a mountain. This is the traditional spot for the Mt. of Temptation as found in Matthew 4:8-10. 

And finally, my most favorite spot of the day-- The Road to Jericho. This has been my favorite view so far. It was gorgeous! This is traditionally where the story of the Good Samaritan would have taken place. It is also the road Christ traveled on between Jerusalem and Jericho. The Mt. of Temptation is just behind the camera, so he would have been fasting for 40 days and night in this terrain.