I can’t remember if I talked about Mr Arbel on the first day we toured or not. We walked along the valley on day 1 I believe, looking up at the caves that people lived in, in Jesus’ time. Bedouins and Jews lived in the mountains between Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee. I mean IN the mountains. Check this out.
These holes in the rock face are caves. We were hoping to be able to hike to see them on this day, but the weather was uncooperative. As it was, for me this was a blessing, because I never would have made the hike with how I was feeling. Two hours hiking straight up would not have happened for me. So at the end of the day, of Day 2 now as I go through my pictures to find this shot, we saw Mt Arbel from the bottom.
On Day 9, Hasim, our stellar driver, drove us to near the top of Mt Arbel. Wow, what a view.
Here’s another view of it as we approached in the bus.
Then we parked the bus and climbed the black trail with the orange dot…we know what that means, Jesus trail…to the top of the mountain. Look at this view.
This is the northern end of the Sea of Galilee.
This is a nearby peak called “the Horns of Wheat.” One of two “horns”, if I’m remembering correctly. 
You can also see Mt Tabor, the Mount of the Transfiguration, from here.
There’s me and my sweet boy with Mt Tabor in the background. This trip is easily the most agreeable to being photographed he’s been in his entire life.
So in this picture, if you look closely at my shadow where my shoulder is, you’ll see a brown spot…that is a cooney. That’s what they call them. It’s a kind of rodent looking critter that roams around up there on the rocks. Our guide Eitan tells us that genetically they are related to elephants, but I think they look more like brown over-sized guinea pigs. I’ll see if Evan has a better picture of them than I do, I’m sure he will, he was quite enamored with them.
This is our guide, Eitan, giving us a history and geography lesson. We also had a devotion and some time to sit and reflect alone with God in nature in this breathtaking environment. Yes, I cried. I cried every time I got time enough to think about what was happening and where I was. Sakes.
On the way down to the bus, we noticed this mosaic mural depicting what happened here in the time of the Romans. Sad story. The Jews that were living in the mountain were not going to give in to Roman rule so easily, and they fought them. This mountain with its system of caves was a fortress and not easy for the Romans to attack. Ultimately, the way they found to attack the people living in the mountain was to lower their best soldiers over the side of the mountain from the top, from where we had just been standing, and attack them from above. The story goes that the people of the village would rather die than be captured and sold as slaves (the fate of the women and children) or killed, (the fate of the men) and so this father threw all 14 of his children off the mountain to their deaths before jumping himself. I cannot imagine.
Here is the example rebuilt to show how the Romans got their soldiers down the face of the mountain. Lowering wooden baskets of soldiers via a lever and pulley system. Eitan says that people who enjoy rappelling and rock climbing claim this as the first time known that humans rappelled off the top of a mountain.
The pace of the hike extension slowed dramatically from the previous touring pace. We still saw lots, but were able to take some time at some locations and spend time reflecting, praying, and listening to God. I enjoyed that aspect quite a bit. This was a beautiful place to rest and revel in God’s awesome creation.
Our next stop still stands out, after seeing everything we saw, as one of my top three stops. Migdal. Ancient Magdala, as in Mary Magdalene. Wow.