Day Five: Jericho

We left the lush green rolling hills of Galilee and headed south on Road 90, the longest road in Israel. Stopped at what is now my favorite archeological spot of the trip thus far - Bet She'an. First we saw the ruins of a Roman Amphitheatre - this is the stuff of gladiator movies and lions and Christians:

Then a ways farther we saw the ruins of an ancient Roman city - just astounding. There have been discoveries on this site that date from 1500 BCE through the 8th century CE:

My favorite was the theatre:

We stopped at one more archeological site, then crossed through the border into the West Bank:

Arrived in Jericho where we are spending the night. Jericho is a Palestinian City in the West Bank. There are about 35,000 residents. Most are Sunni. There are about 500 Christians who also live here.

We visited the ruins of one of the palaces of Herod the Great. We also visited a palace from the Umayad Dynasty where you can view the most famous mosaic in the world called, "The Tree of Life":

To say it was hot today as we stood outside at Herod's palace is pretty much the understatement of the century. To quote Tom Hanks from the movie, "Volunteers," it felt like we were about a mile from the sun. Tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter. :-)

Shalom

Lisa