DAY 14 (May 10, 2011): Second Journey, Day 4
Shepheleh, Ashkelon, Herodion, Ramparts Walk
Ferrell and I returned to the lowlands of Israel between the central mountain range and the coastal plain today. This was the third time we’ve been in this region in as many weeks so I won’t say any more about this area. However, there were three really outstanding parts of the day I’d like to review.
First, we passed through the Shepheleh on our way to Ashkelon which was one of the five cities of the Philistines and site of Samson’s angry vengeance against them for “plowing with his heifer” in Judges 14:17-20. This event transpired in the 12th century before Christ. But the city had originally been built 700 years earlier by a people so industrious that the foundations upon which the actual city walls stood was 135 feet wide and 45 feet tall. This foundation and its wall comprised a circle of 1.25 miles and had several gates. The gate in the photo is the oldest arched gate in the world. Please note though that only the bricks on either side are original. The actual arch you see is a reconstruction
Ashkelon stands on a cliff overlooking a most picturesque beach.
The second “big” thing we did today was to visit the Herodion, Herod the great’s colossal and towering palace just a few miles outside of Bethlehem. This man-made mountain had been well known to me, I’d even shown some photos in a recent class I taught, but I’d always suspected the real scale and magnitude of this gargantuan structure was eluding me. I was right! Vast as it seemed in the photos I’d already acquired, it was in fact shockingly larger, more majestic and towering than I’d been able to grasp. It is also honeycombed with caves and tunnels which, again, can’t be appreciated unless you actually lay eyes upon them. Here are a couple of pictures which can only leave you where I once was, uncomprehending of the truly breathtaking reality.
We were only barely able to get back to Jerusalem before the 5 o’clock deadline for entrance onto “The Ramparts Walk” of the old city’s walls. I’d wanted to do this for quite a while so I jumped out of the car at a light and while Ferrell headed back to the hotel I ran up a hill to the Jaffa Gate and plunked down my 16 shekels ($5) only 3 minutes before closing time. Surrounding the older sections of Jerusalem, and built in the 16th century by the Moslem Turks, the crenalated stone walls are themselves most impressive, but the views between the stones as you walk high up upon these walls are simply wondrous.
There are many stairs, up and down, up and down, and the walkway itself is quite rough. Every few feet you can see through the space between the stones through which the defenders would hurl their wrath. At other places you have the archer’s slits and everywhere the ominous feeling of ancient wars. I took 109 photos in the single hour I spent upon the ramparts. Here are a few which closed out this day and this blog…
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