Mediterranean Sea I woke up on my final day in Israel feeling incredibly grateful for the time spent thus far in this beautiful country and, though sad to be leaving, determined to savor every moment of my remaining time. City of David We started our tour at the City of David, named after King David. Long before King David however, the city began its existence with his forefather, Abraham. In fact, archaeologists have found evidence showing that it was in the City of David

Shiloh I woke up a little sad, with the realization that this was my penultimate day in Israel. We started the day at Shiloh, located in the West Bank. Shiloh was an ancient city in the hill country of Samaria and was the religious and military capital of Israel during the time of the Judges. Shiloh is most famously known for being the location where the Tabernacle, or Mishkan, resided for 369 years and became a permanent structure (Joshua 18:1). Prior to this, the Taberna

Dead Sea at Sunrise On my fifth, full day in Israel, we left the Dead Sea after sunrise to visit Masada. Masada Masada is a natural, mountain fortress built by King Herod the Great in 30 B.C. Herod, who reigned between 37 B.C. and 4 A.D., erected this palace in the remote, southern end of the Judean Desert. To reach Masada, we took a cable car ride, though you can also choose to hike up the mountain via the "snake path," if you like. We boarded the cable car at 843 feet bel

I woke up early, once again, to see my last sunrise over the Sea of Galilee and bid farewell to the city of Tiberias. On our way out of town, I got to see the mighty, Jordan River (which I shared about in my last post) one more time. Bet She'an Our first stop of the day was at Bet She'an, a large, ancient city strategically located where the road from Jerusalem meets with the road towards the Transjordan. The Bet She'an National Park has some of the best-preserved ruins in t

Tel Dan Nature Reserve Lookout Point at Tel Dan Nature Reserve Our first stop on my third day in Israel, was at the Tel Dan Nature Reserve. Home to the ancient city of Dan, the Tel Dan Nature Reserve has hiking trails, waterfalls, archaeology and lookout points, like the one above. From this spot, we could see a small village in the neighboring country of Lebanon. Tel Dan was first settled during the fifth millennium B.C., at the end of the Neolithic Age. In the 20th and 1

Sea of Galilee Daybreak at the Sea of Galilee Though not a morning person at all, I woke up before the sun so I could watch it rise over the Sea of Galilee. Though it is called a sea, this body of water is not a sea at all. In fact, it is the lowest, freshwater lake on Earth and the second lowest lake after the Dead Sea, which is saltwater. (More to come on the Dead Sea in a later post.) Sea of Galilee The morning was peaceful, the waters were tranquil and I felt a sense o

Israel is a Middle Eastern country located on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. The country itself is tiny -- 290 miles north-to-south and 85 miles east-to-west, at its widest point. For some U.S., East Coast perspective, that is about the size of the state of New Jersey. For West Coast perspective, that is the size of California's entire Bay Area. The country of Israel has a population of about nine million people made up of Jews, Muslims and Christians, all of