The Tour - Part 3

Back to the tour....

After Masada, we decided to avoid the tourists and spend the afternoon on a ‘nature walk’ in an area called Wadi Arugot. Elle had been there as a child and remembered hiking through a dry river bed which ended at a waterfall, where you could swim. It all sounded very idyllic, and it would have been, had not the rest of Israel decided it was a great activity for them as well that afternoon. If possible, there were more people on this nature walk than there were at Masada, and, considering we were walking along cliff edges and trying to negotiate through teeny tiny rocky passageways it wasn’t exactly communing with nature. Somehow, this walk felt more like a race, as everyone shoved past and pushed forward. I made the grave mistake of waiting to let someone pass. 10 minutes later I found an opportunity to get ‘back in line’ and that may be the last time I do that in Israel. I was pretty cranky by the time we got to the waterfall, it was really hot, and the swimming hole was full of kids. Elle convinced me nonetheless to jump in, and, being to wilted to argue, did. It was actually a really great idea, completely refreshing even though I felt ridiculous with all my clothes on (even my runners). The walk back was much more pleasant, cool and less crowded. A group of ibexes (1) crossed our path and we snapped a few hundred photos. Well worth it.

The next day we had planned an actual tour, with a real tour guide, to take us to Nazareth. Ghada (2) was a friend of a friend, a Palestinian Christian living in Haifa who toured groups through Israel, Turkey and soon Berlin. She was smart and lovely, and apparently still excited about the things she showed us that day. She suggested that we first go to Mount Tabor, near Nazareth, where there was a beautiful basilica at the site of Christ’s ‘transfiguration’. I mistakenly thought this was the place of the ‘ascension’, where Jesus was teleported to heaven, but the ‘transfiguration’ was more of a glowing and hovering event, where Jesus is kind of outed by God as his Son, with Moses and Elijah on either side. A ‘transfiguration’ is no ‘ascension’, but I tried not to let my disappointment show and just enjoyed the beautiful church and scenery. The cooler church however, was the little one halfway up the mountain within a Greek Orthodox monastery. Luckily Ghada sweet-talked her way past a very stern nun who only allowed us in for one minute. Apparently the frescoes inside had just been cleaned and they covered the entire interior of the church. We tried to stay and listen to a group of pilgrims singing, but our time was up and the nun basically kicked us out (after our 10 shekel ‘donation’).

Nazareth was Ghada’s hometown, and she told us people were always surprised that she led tours through the city. This was the city where Jesus grew up and somehow they thought there was really nothing to see here. It was sad, because even beyond all the Jesus stuff, Nazareth is really quite beautiful in many of the older areas. The market feels very much like the Old City in Jerusalem, but without the active retail. According to Ghada, since the building of Nazareth Illit, the newer Jewish side of town with shopping malls, the market really can’t sustain itself anymore. However, despite that, there were many little gems she showed us, such as old painted ceilings in people’s houses and the way you enter an Arab domicile (3). Before we broke for lunch, she took us to a gift store, which doubled as an archeological exhibit as the owner had basically found what seemed to be a ancient bathhouse while he was renovating his store. The owner was a tall pony-tailed Palestinian man in his 50s who seemed to have a pretty big chip on his shoulder that his found bathhouse had not received the recognition it deserved. After he had uncovered part of it and alerted the authorities (4), he had been told that it was a Turkish bath and he could carry on with his renovations. Well, not only was it not Turkish, it was not only Roman, but probably pre-Roman. He explained all of this to us as we sat underneath his gift store, in what would have been the heated crawlspace, full of massive arches that supported the floor. We made the mistake of telling him we had just seen the ruins of Herod’s bathhouse at Masada, at which point he nearly spit on the floor and basically said that was a bathhouse for babies compared to Masada. I felt kind of bad for him, as he was obviously obsessed with his bathhouse and frustrated that few people seemed to appreciate it. Thankfully Dad bought quite an expensive necklace at their gift store and it was time to go.

As I said, Nazareth is a big Jesus town and we hit a few of the major sites. I won’t get into all of it, but the final stop was the Church of the Annunciation, that being, the place where Mary was given the great news that she was to be the mother of God (I think at this must be at least equal to the 'Ascension'). Apparently they know that this is the place because they found some ancient graffiti on the site with Mary’s name on it. Well, who am I to argue, but could there not have been more than one ‘Mary’ in Nazareth? Any way, it turned out to be a very cool church. Of course, built upon Byzantine and Crusader churches as per usual, but this church was built in the 60s anticipating 70s Brutalism. Massive beautifully formed complex concrete. Fantastic. It was worth going to Nazareth just to see this church. Along the interior, it seemed every nation of the world had been encouraged to supply a mosaic on the virgin-mary-and-child theme. My favourite was the Japanese.

Afterwards we stood outside and Ghada sang for us in Latin, reading the inscription on the side of the chuch in the courtyard. It was all a bit much after a long day and Elle and I nearly burst into tears. Our tour was over.


Footnotes

1. Ibex. Gazelle like creature – see photo.
2. Ghada: pronounced Rada.
3. Long procedure involving coughing, announcing and pretending your husband is home or not home that has everything to do with men and women staying separate.
4. If you come across what might be something ancient while renovating or excavating, you must alert the Department of Antiquities. Instead, most people apparently phone for a large load of concrete.