Tiberias, Nazareth and Haifa

Today we drove from Jerusalem east to the Dead Sea, north along the Jordan River, which is the boundary between Jordan and Israel, to the Sea of Galilee, then west to Nazareth, and finally to the Mediterranean city of Haifa where our ship awaited us.

Jerusalem is at a high altitude. The west side of the city is green and the east side is desert. The Dead Sea is ther lowest place on earth at 1,500 feet below sea level.

We had lunch on the shore of the Sea of Galilee in Tiberias. We could see the Golan Heights on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee is really a fresh water lake and in Hebrew the world for it is lake.

It is unbelievable to us now that we are here and have learned so much that Obama would want to give up the Golan Heights because it would deprive Israel of its only source of water. As a precaution against this happening Israel is quickly building desalinization plants along the Mediterranean Sea to produce its supply of water, most of which now comes from the Sea of Galilee.

Sea of Galilee

Golan Heights

In Nazareth we went to the Church of Annunciation, one of Christendom's most revered shrines and the largest church in the middle east, where the archangel Gabriel revealed to Mary that she would be the mother of the Messiah. Under the church we saw the cave where Mary had lived. On top of the front of the church is a statue of Jesus. By chance there was a live white dove sitting on his head. Our tour guide went crazy since this is almost miraculous. The dove signifies the Holy Spirit. Notice the dove in the photo. Inside the church there is a mural of Jesus with a dove over his head.