Day 6. Dan. Pan. Fish. Boat.

Morning in Tiberias, looking over the Sea of Galilee

The 2015 edition of the Old Rocks Tour has begun. I’ll spare you most of the photographs, but we saw a boatload of old rocks today. Old Synagogues, old temples, old gates, old temples, old cities…old old old. And this stuff is OLD. Thousands of years. Here's a picture of what Elaine and I look like while admiring old rocks: 

Our journey today started in Tiberias. We drove north to the sliver of land where Israel meets Lebanon meets Syria. We took a hike though Tel Dan national park, headwaters of the Jordan and site of the ancient city of Dan (old rocks). We were also lucky enough to see something quite cool and VERY old: the Canaanite gate and city of three arches. Think about this - it's possible that Abraham walked through these some 3500 years ago. http://www.biblewalks.com/Sites/DanCanaaniteCity.html

While we were on our walk through Tel Dan, we explored the remnant of a military bunker, evidence of one of the many conflicts fought in this plot of land. With Damascus just 50 km from where I was standing, ISIS closing in on Damascus, meanwhile Hezbollah close enough to see...standing in a military bunker is surreal. Too much war. I stood here and felt that borders are quite arbitrary.   

We left Tel Dan and saw some more fascinating old rocks, the ancient city of Banias, the main attraction being the Cave of Pan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banias . You probably recall the recent story of Bronze mask being discovered.  

Then we headed back to Tiberias, and stopped on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee from some fresh fish. 

I think the fish was delicious. But I wouldn't know because the boys were busy eating all of mine. Ana stuck to the salad and reminded her brothers they were eating one of God’s creatures. Sam and Ben reminder her that it was delicious.

Elaine and the kids picked sea shells out of the Sea of Galilee.

We stopped at Capernaum as well. They changed the sign (reference last year’s page on Capernaum). 

Edit: last week's post from Capernaum did not include the picture I was thinking about. Here it is. The picture from last year: 

We finished our day with a peaceful boat ride on the Sea of Galilee.