Day Twelve: The Good Samaritan

Packed up and left our beautiful hotel in Jerusalem. On our way out of the city, we visited the Temple Mount. You literally walk on a wooden walkway over the top of the Waling Wall to get up to the Temple Mount:

Once up on the top, the Dome of the Rock is a very impressive sight:

We said our good-byes to Jerusalem and headed north to a Samaritan Village on top of Mount Garizim. 

We learned some facinating things about Samaritans. There are only 775 Samaritans left in the world. Half of them live in the village we visited, and the other half live near Tel Aviv. They are not Christian, Jewish or Muslim - they are their own religion. They are the ancestors of the biblical Samaritans, and have a lot in common with the Jewish faith. They are a very peace loving people.

After the Samaritan Village we drove through Nablus, the second largest city in the West Bank. 

Then on to Sebastia, the site of yet another structure built by Herod the Great. Apparently all Herod did was build things. Here are some of the ruins of his city:

As we hiked up to the ruins, we were reminded again to watch out for scorpions and poisonous vipers. Also, the weather was extremely hot - in the 90s - I think it is safe to say we were all happy to get back on the bus.

The next stop was very pleasant - the site of Jacob's Well, at the Church of Saint Luciana.

Under the church is the well, and you can take a drink of the water, which many of us did. This is recognized as the sight where Jesus encountered the Samaritan woman at the well.

Finally we arrived back in Bethlehem where we are spending the night. The streets are crawling with people and vendors and children enjoying a very warm evening.

Our hotel is right next to the Church of the Nativity which we have already visited. 

On to Tel Aviv tomorrow as we prepare to come home. I will blog one more time with some final thoughts. It has been an amazing trip.

Shalom,

Lisa