I think my favorite spot of the day was actually where we started, at Caesaria. The rain at the beginning was a little annoying, but it was just such an impressive place. I love watching Herod stamp around the country and following in his footsteps. It never ceases to amaze me the way he totally out-maneuvers nature and does things that completely change the landscape.
In addition to just being completely awed by Herod, I simply love the sea. Growing up in a fishing town, I have a great appreciation for both its beauty and its dangers. It makes perfect sense to me why the Israelites from the hill country might fear the sea and speak of it in negative terms. Not only does it represent Hellenistic and Roman influences, it is also just dangerous. The sea can easily go from beautiful to deadly in very short amounts of time.
At Caesaria one can see yet again Herod's determination to create works of his own. Instead of using the natural ports of Joppa or Acco, he chose to creat his own by building a massive breakwater. He also established a port a bit more central by doing this. While his reasons make sense, I simply cannot imagine the kind of man it takes to decide a place like Caesaria is worth all the trouble.
Moving on from there and over to Mt. Carmel, I began to get a sense of how green this area of the country really is. Compared to our last field study in the Negev, it is pretty hard to believe that I could still be in the same country. Looking out from Carmel over the valleys also helped me start to gain an appreciation for the routes running through them. I understand now why they are the international ones. No foreigner would ever want to choose the rough hill country roads when they could run straight through the broad areas here around the Jezreel Valley.
Learning about Elijah and the "battle of the gods" on Mt. Carmel in a new perspective was also very interesting. I never occurred to me before coming to Israel that each god had their own characteristics and Israel might have struggled to see how a God of the desert could also be a god of fields. It is interesting to me that perhaps even Elijah himself had a bit of a deity crisis and God had to set the record straight that he was not the same as Ba'al (hence why he did not appear in the earthquake or the wind, things generally associated with Ba'al).
Megiddo interested me both because of the massiveness of the tel (25+ layers) and because it is one of the cities that Solomon fortified. The view from Megiddo was pretty awesome as well. Everything was completely green, rather a surprise for what I have become accustomed to. Beyond that, the way Megiddo juts out a little bit we were able to do a pretty good horizon line of the surrounding passes and mountains. As well, hearing about how Megiddo quite likely has nothing to do with Armeggedon was fascinating. It's interesting to me how the differences of lettering Hebrew and Greek could change the name from "mountain of Megiddo" to "Mount of the Assembly," which would be Jerusalem. Having given it very little thought yet, I am not exactly sure what I think. However, it certainly makes more sense theologically that way.
Ending the day at Jezreel, I was struck again just by the green everywhere. The fields were such a rich color and so full of life. I think this was one of my biggest impressions of the day, and it only takes one word - green!
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