Fortresses, tombs and more

Since my last post, I have photographed Belvoir National Park (or Kochav Hayarden), the best preserved in Israel and was built by the Hospitaller knights around 1140 AD, and is one of the last places where the Crusader period had a hold. Saladin defeated the Crusaders in 1189 after a long battle (a year or more), and Saladin let them live because of their impressive bravery. The fortress is a typical Crusader fortress, complete with a moat. The moat did not have water, the idea being that if soldiers went into the moat they were in even worse shape than before they went to the lower level, where they could easily be attacked. The Hebrew name, Kochav Hayarden, means "Star of the Jordan" and came from the name of a nearby Jewish village which existed during the Roman and Byzantine periods. The French name is Belvoir, meaning "Fair View," which is definitely accurate. Jordan and the Golan heights can be seen from the Eastern side of the fortress:

This site took a few weeks because of a couple weeks that I could only photograph one day of the week. Other than working on photos, I had some other trips and events. For Purim we had a workshop, and a Rabbi came and told the story - he brought noisemakers and more. I made a mask and enjoyed the holiday.

Next was a trip to Tel Aviv to learn more about becoming a citizen in Israel. I visited Tel Aviv University as well on this trip, and hope to go back to their museum soon so I can take a tour.

Good deeds day is another holiday in Israel, and I participated by going to volunteer at the local hospital. I ended up going to visit rooms and sing with a group dressed as an angry bird.

On another trip, we visited Holon and toured a deaf facility where a woman led us through doing nonverbal communication exercises. Afterwards, we visited Save a Child's Heart, where one of the other participants is interning. This organization helps children from developing countries who are born with congenital heart disease, etc. get life-saving heart surgery, as well as doing training for professionals.

Another day, we went to Tel Aviv for a tour of Ben Gurion's house, which was interesting. I also visited the Madatech museum of Science and Technology in Haifa one day.

Last week I started photographing Bet Shearim. This site is the burial place of Rabbi Judah HaNisi, the compiler of the Mishnah. His burial there prompted many Jews from all over the world to want to do the same, so there are many tomb complexes with all kinds of burial methods there. In addition, the Rabbi wanted an amphitheater type structure over his tomb for studying the Mishnah and Torah, so there are a couple of those. There are also cisterns and an old synagogue, as well as a town. The tombs are famous for their inscriptions, mostly in Greek, with names and curses like "whoever enters here will die a bad death." There are also carvings in many of the sarcophagi with lions, menorahs, and more.

Cave of Itzhak Zaira son of Shimon

The doors on the complexes are stone but carved to look like wood.

The tombs are carved from soft limestone, which is easy to destroy and causes problems for the site.

Some of the inscriptions; in this cave the inscriptions told the name that is on the sign to the entrance.

 

Cave of the head of the Sidonian Synagogue

 

The theater structure above Rabbi HaNisi's tomb.

I will post more photos on my blog as I photograph more of this site. This week our trip is to hike Ein Gedi and visit the Dead Sea. Next weekend is Passover, and the week of Passover I will be going on the dig in Zippori (Sepphoris) to photograph and participate. So it's shaping up to be a busy couple of weeks, but I'm excited!