Israel is one of the most special places in the world. Holy to the three major religions, it has been a source of major conflict. Check out my Middle East politics page (coming soon).

Many things struck us when we went to Israel. Israelis are just like Americans. They listen to the same music, watch the same TV, wear the same clothes, and eat the same food. Yet, there are many things that you just don't see anywhere else in the world.

Here's something you don't see around here:

Note the menorah on top of the police station.

Everything in Israel has some history to it, and over 75% of the country is National Park.

The ruins of the ancient Roman city Beat Shean (Bet'Shen)

The ancient ampitheater at Beat Shean:
the acoustics are so good that we stood in the back row, threw a stone to the stage, and heard the echo as clearly as if it landed right next to us.

Keeping with the Roman theme of the day...

 

Many other historical figures passed through Israel

A cannon left by Napoleon's armies

Ruins of the Crusader city of Acre (Akko)

And, of course, ruins of the Hebrews.

The famous Western Wall (Wailing Wall). People write prayers on sheets of paper, and stick them in the cracks. This wall is all that remains of the Second Temple of the Jews, destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70. Interestingly, the Dome of the Rock, the third holiest site to Muslims, is about 300 feet away from the Western Wall, the holiest site to Jews.

My brother, myself, and the Dome of the Rock.

The wall is huge. The Second Temple was the size of a small city.

Excavation under the Wall:

After the Jews were kicked out of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 by the Romans, many fled to the fortress of Masada, on a mountain in the desert.

 

The fortress was so well constructed that it held enough water for all the Jews for 2 years. The Romans surrounded the fortress, but didn't have much water, and every day had to watch the Jews shower (done in plain sight to irritate the Romans) while they barely had enough to drink. Also Romans hurled massive stones up the hill with then high-tech catapults, and the Jews simply rolled them back down, causing as much damage. Catapults ceased to be used fairly soon into the battle.
 

After two years, the Jewish defenses began to falter. One night, they collapsed, but the Romans retreated to the bottom of the mountain. Everyone knew that when morning came, the city and its people would be captured. Rather than live as slaves, the people of Masada decided to kill themselves on their last night free. Husbands killed wives and children to save them from slavery, and then took their own lives.

The nearby body of water is appropriately (but unrelatedly)
called the Dead Sea.

The Dead Sea is super-saturated with every naturally occuring element on Earth. As a result, people float in it freakishly well. Also, the bottom is not sand, but salt crystals (new salt simply falls to the bottom rather than being absorbed by the already-full water).

While the Jews were kept from living in Israel (out of the country until the 1800's when Theodor Herzl began the modern Zionist movement, and out of Jerusalem until 1948), many other cultures moved in.

The Turks (a Muslim empire that collapsed during World War I) have a distinctive (and awesome) style of architecture.

The Bedouins are a nomadic tribe that roams the whole Middle East. Diplomatic arrangements have been made that allow them to freely pass between countries.

We ate dinner with a tribe of Bedouins.

We also got to ride their camels.

At the Arab Market in Jerusalem, if you can navigate the narrow, winding streets, you can find just about anything you're looking for.

Nothing illustrates the multicultural nature of Israel better than this sign.
It says "men" in two languages . Interestingly, in the Arab sections of Israel, women don't wear dresses, so translating those little symbols was really, really hard.

We visited Karmiel,  Pittsburgh's sister city.

We planted trees in Karmiel. A typical present to honor a Jew is to pay for a tree to be planted in Israel. As the old joke goes, "we planted a tree in your name. Your turn to water it is Thursday".

Our host family

We went whitewater rafting in the Jordan river,
getting drenched in "holy water"

Note how narrow the river is. This is the RAINY season.

We also went offroading in the Golan heights, a disputed region with Syria.

Yes, I am wearing a hamsterdance shirt.

In order to visit some holy sites, we needed to cover up our legs.

How's that for a fashion statement?

Speaking of fashion statements...

I think it looks better on Scooby

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