Day 2: Perceived Arch-Nemesis "The Negev"

Day 2:   I really expected this portion of the trip to be my least favorite. We headed down into the Negev, which is the southern-most part of Israel. On our geography maps that we have to color in class, it was the wide section that consisted of lots of yellow and little-to-no green. But, to my great surprise, I ended up pleasantly enjoying the Negev! Thought, I'm not sure if that was due to the massive amounts of prayer I had interceding for me that weekend, if it was my wanting to shock everyone who thought of me as a negative person (a majority of the undergrad student body – no exaggeration), or if I actually was just enjoying myself. No matter what the reason, I am thankful that I had a good time.

          Our first two stops were slightly interesting, but I enjoyed them more for the view they offered than anything else. We began our day at Arad, once a bustling and large Canaanite city along the Egyptian gold trade routes to the south, that was later conquered by Israel and used as an Israelite fortress. Did I say fortress? I meant a sacrificial city. Now, today, you can go and see the remains of the Canaanite city – a very large city wall surrounding a city with some of the best archaeological remains that we have for the Canaanites. There stands a well preserved house, animal troth, storage rooms, and various other city buildings. What's unique about this site is not just how well preserved everything was, but that there is a cistern in the center and all the roads direct rain water fall into it. This means that the city had to have been well planned. Which also means that the city would have needed a unified powerful government to conduct such planning. Later on, the Israelites came in and took over the city (leaving the remains of the Canaanite city) and built their own fortress at the highest point there was. Israel wanted a city there because it sat right on the gold/copper trade and could “protect” their Southern boarder. The problem is that there is too little rain to support agriculture, so the land only gave enough to support shepherding. So they probably had to have a lot of support from Israel because they would have needed things like water and grain. We also know that only 12 families held down the site. Doesn't sound very strong or scary, does it? Basically, if any invading army came through, they would be destroyed and a message would be sent to Israel saying that their southern fortress had been taken down and that an invading army was coming through. Not many people volunteered for that job, I'm sure. Next, we stopped at Beer-Sheva, which kind of served the same purposes in that it was on the trade route, acted as an administration center (people brought their taxes there), and acted as a southern defense. But, Beer-Sheva had a well and more water. So it was a much bigger city than Arad and supported much more life. They would have only needed extra food, which they may have even been able to get from incoming trade caravans. Does Beer-Sheva sound familiar to you? It should. Abraham and Isaac came through there and dug many wells and it marks the southern boundary of Israel, thus the phrase “from Dan to Beer-Sheva” when the Bible talks about the whole of Israel. It's also where Elijah took refuge when Jezebel wanted him killed.

          What else do these two cities have in common? They both contain mini-reconstructions of the temple in Jerusalem from Solomon's time period. Meaning, that Solomon gave them permission to build these little temples. What's odd about this is that the temple in Jerusalem was supposed to be the only one. We can only suspect that Solomon allowed this to happen because the cities are too far away from Jerusalem for people to make their yearly sacrifices. But, in both these temples, we find evidence and artifacts related to other gods. Archaeologists think that these cities may have mixed pagan gods like Baal and Ashura with Yahweh-istic worship, forming a sort of Jewish folk religion. This is plausible because there were so many other cultures passing through the cities with their pagan gods. And, Ashura is the pagan god of fertility and abundance. Well, out in the middle of the desert with little water and life support, I may be praying for a little land fertility as well. Or, maybe they weren't mixing the religions at all. Maybe they were just offering an area of worship to their pagan friends that were passing through.

          After these two stops, we went and at lunch by the Wadi Zin, also known as the “ladder trail”. That name should automatically alert you. It's the reason that I fully expected to hate the Negev. Who wants to “walk” a climb that consists of climbing ladders. The pictures that I took from the top of the mountain, look horizontal, but no. They're vertical. Check this out:

Yep. I climbed up that. And it was shady and breezy and, dare I say it? I enjoyed it! Yep. I actually had a good time. It just goes to show you that I can handle anything as long as it's not hot, humid, and sunny.

          Then we ended the day at Machtesh Ramon. A machtesh is a natural land crater. Meaning that it's not really a crater, it's just somewhere that the land just drops down to a cliff and creates this giant inlaid bowl in the ground. You really have to see it to know what I'm talking about:

This was a perfect end to the day. It wasn't hot, the wind was blowing, and our last two stops consisted of nothing historical. Just peaceful scenery and getting to experience the land.