Day 1 - tour & setup

Today was our first day on site at Tel Gezer! We had a tour of the site and then worked on set-up (which for me meant helping make sandbags, mostly). It was HOT but still a great day. The water system is gigantic; I'm pretty excited about getting inside the cave! The gate and other areas are interesting as well.

Gezer (which means carrot in modern Hebrew) is located in the shephelah of Israel. In this photo you can see the Mediterranean, which is one of the many reasons Gezer was such an important city.

 

The buildings in the distance are in the Hasmonean city of Modiin (the Maccabees were here).

 

Gezer is the only Canaanite city with standing stones like these, which are of impressive size.

 

Dr. Dan Warner explaining the standing stones.

 

A wider view.

 

The Solomonic gate.

 

The Solomonic gate.

 

Going down to the water system.

 

The cavernous water system!

 

Making sandbags.

 

Here's a view of where we were working today.