Day 5 - Sea of Galilee, Mount of Beatitudes, Caesarea Philippi, Golan Heights, Valley of the Doves

This day was Saturday, the Sabbath in Israel, and we were able to board a fishing boat and go out into the middle of the Sea of Galilee for a short fireside.

The name of our ship was King David

We sang "Master the Tempest is Raging" and I imagined the Savior walking on the water and Peter trying to walk on the water. The second verse became emotional for me as I thought about those times in life that are hard:

Master, with anguish of spirit I bow in my grief today
The depths of my sad heart are troubled.  Oh waken and save, I pray!
Torrents of sin and of anguish sweep o'er my sinking soul,
And I perish! I perish! dear Master.  Oh, hasten and take control!

 The city of Tiberius

We arrived on the other side of the lake at Capernaum and visited the Mt of Beatitudes where there is... you guessed it, a church!  It had very beautiful grounds.

 Mount of Beatitudes

 View of the Sea of Galilee from the Mount of Beatitudes Church

From there we continued on to the Sanctuary of Pan.  The conquests of Alexander the Great (3rd century BC) brought the Greeks to this area.  They dedicated this spring and cave to Pan, god of the forest and the shepherds.  The area was called Panyas, later becoming "Banyas."  Towards the end of the 1st century BC, the Romans incorporated Banyas into Herod's empire.  To show his esteem, Herod built a temple near the springs and named it for the Roman emperor Augustus.  Herod's son, Philippus, established his seat of rule here, calling the town Caesarea Philippi. 

Temple ruins at the Sanctuary of Pan

Mark and his friend, Pan

 Three rivers flow into the Jordan River before it goes into the Sea of Galilee.  The Banyas River is one of them.  These falls are on the Banyas River.

Next we drove up Tel Dan which is part of the Golan Heights.  From the top, we could see over the DMZ to Syria to the east and Mt Hermon to the west.  There were old bunkers at the top that were used to defend the Golan Heights during the 6 Day War.

 Interestingly enough, I met a family from Pleasanton at the top while we were nosing around the bunkers.  Since I had a name tag on with where I was from, they started up a conversation with me.  It was weird that we were so far from home and ran into people from our hometown.

As we returned back around the lake (why is it called a sea?) we stopped very near Magdala (Mary Magdalene's hometown.)  There we walked along the Valley of the Doves.  It is flanked by very high mountains (Mt Arbel) with lots of caves in the cliffs. Along this valley is the route Jesus would have taken from Nazareth to the Sea of Galilee.

The famous "Battle of Hattin" occurred here in 1187 when the Crusader Kingdom of Israel went up against the Muslim armies of Saladin.  Most of the Crusader forces were captured or killed and the Islamic forces once again gained control of the area.  This defeat prompted the Third Crusade that began two years later.

Minaret and mosque