Tour 7 - West from Jerusalem
Tomb of Samuel - Emmaus - Valley of Elah - Gath - Lachish - Mareshah - Gezer - Ashkelon - Joppa
From Jerusalem head for Nebi Samwil, the supposed tomb of the prophet Samuel. This is a Muslim shrine but notice how the same arrangement of cenotaph and tomb applies as at the tomb of Rachel. It is possible to climb up onto the roof, from where you can look out over New Jerusalem and a considerable portion of the Holy Land, from the Mediterranean to the hills of Moab. Even if there is too much haze to see all that, the roof itself is well worth the climb. It isn't flat, but more than that I won't say. Find out for yourself. The Crusaders called this place Mountjoy, because it was from here that they first saw Jerusalem.
A narrow road leads to Emmaus, which has traditionally been identified with el-Qubeiba, where you can view a large church built on the very ... Even the stained glass windows inside aren't terribly inspiring. This Emmaus is uncomfortably close to Gibeon and Ramallah, so make sure of your route and if in doubt take advice before going.
There is a plethora of places to visit around here, mainly for the geography of the sites than because there is anything worth seeing, and it is up to you to decide which, if any, you wish to view. Beth Horon, where the sun stood still; Abu Ghosh or Kirjath Jearim, where the ark was kept (and where there is a church adorned by a statue of Mary standing on the Ark. The relationship between the two escapes me); Modim, where the Maccabean revolt started and where you can find a series of rock-cut graves dating from the Maccabee period; Latrun (which is also plausibly identified as Emmaus); the Samson country of Beth Shemesh, Zorah and Timnath; and Lod, where Peter healed Aeneas and where you can find the tomb of St George (him of the maiden and the dragon).
A good tour is to follow the main road for Tel Aviv as far as Latrun and then turn left for Beth Shemesh, the place to which the ark returned after its captivity among the Philistines. There is a tel here and some excavating has taken place, but it is not really worth the trouble of tracking it down and clambering over it.
Follow along the road to Lachish, making sure that you stop in the Valley of Elah along the way to pick up the very stone which David slung at Goliath. I'm sure you will have no trouble identifying it among the thousands of suitable stones in the stream bed. Unfortunately, you will have to hike a bit to get your stone; at one time the natural stream bed ran under the road, but a couple of years ago a concrete conduit was put in place, so unless it has been filled with gravel since my last visit, you will have to walk up or down stream for a hundred yards or so.
Half a mile up the stream and on a hill top on the left bank recent excavations have uncovered an Israelite fortress. Although interesting, it is not really worth the trouble of finding.
More worthwhile is Tel es-Safi, now known to be Biblical Gath. It is difficult to find and involves turning off the road just before you reach the Valley of Elah and heading towards the coast, then turning off this road onto a dirt track and winding through the hills. The best thing is to work out a route from the Google Earth reference 31 42 00.08N 34 50 49.06E. Not only is the tel most impressive, with a deep ditch dug all around the base of the hill, but the excavators discovered an ostracon (a piece of pottery on which words have been written) bearing the name "Goliath". It is unlikely to be the Biblical giant, but it is evidence that "Goliath" was a name used in Gath.
Just by the turn off notice a high hill on the right of the road, which is all that remains of Azekah, one of the Judean fortresses which held out against the Assyrians. "We can no longer see the watchfires of Azekah," lamented the author of the Lachish Letters.
Lachish, whose brief moment of glory is immortalised in the Assyrian reliefs in the British Museum, is an enormous mound on your left in a valley surrounded by citrus groves. The path leads up to a massive gateway, probably the one depicted in the reliefs. The remains are disappointing because there are no signposts to identify them; the highest mound on top of the tel is probably the governor's palace or the citadel and the depression in the ground in one corner may be the water tunnel shaft, but on the whole you are left to wander around the tel viewing thistles and meaningless heaps of stone, with both of which you are probably sated.
The tel was excavated by a chap called Starkey between 1933 and 1938 but the work was not finished because on his way to Jerusalem for the opening of the Rockerfeller Museum he was murdered by a group of Arabs who saw his beard and thought he was a Jew. His most significant find was a small heap of broken pottery, buried beneath the ashes in a room of the gateway. These 21 ostraca, or potsherds with writing on them, turned out to be letters from various outposts to the commander of the Lachish garrison. They have been variously dated as belonging to the Assyrian siege or the Babylonian - there is only a century between them and neither radio-carbon dating nor pottery typing are accurate enough to decide between 701 BC and 587 BC.
The contents of the letters are fascinating. There are 22 personal names mentioned, most of which contain the name YHWH in one form or another (such as in the familiar Jeremiah — Jerem-yah) but none contain the name of any heathen god. A prophet is mentioned but, unfortunately, not his name, so it could be Jeremiah or even the unfortunate Urijah.
The most poignant of the letters states: "Let my lord know that we are watching for the signals of Lachish, according to all the indications which my lord has given, for we cannot see Azekah". Jeremiah 34:7 tells us that in the course of the war only Jerusalem, Lachish and Azekah were still holding out. Obviously when this letter was written Azekah had ceased to signal and Jerusalem and Lachish were alone against the Babylonians (or the Assyrians).
Work has started on reconstructing the walls and gateway of Lachish, following the details visible in the Assyrian reliefs. The plan is to turn the place into a sort of theme park that will attract tourists and celebrate Jewish heroism against the Assyrians.
Carry on south heading for Beit Guvrin, the modern settlement on the site of ancient Mareshah, where the Diggings team has excavated for the last few years. As you approach the junction with the road from Hebron to the coast notice Roman milestones on your left and a level stripe across the landscape on your right. The stripe is the remains of an aqueduct and the dark holes you see around it are the entrances to a cave complex used by Jewish fighters during the Bar Kokhba rebellion.
Turn right at the junction and a quarter of a mile further turn right again for the kibbutz. Down in the valley near the entrance to the kibbutz are the remains of a pretty impressive Roman amphitheatre, set into a corner of the town walls. Nearby are the remains of a Crusader fortress and church.
Return to the road and turn right for fifty yards or so. Take the first turn-off on your left for the entrance to the National Park which encloses the tel of Mareshah. There is a planned walk that takes you from the underground columbarium where doves were bred for sacrifice at the temple, over the top of the mound past olive oil processing plants, to the complex of linked cisterns which make it possible to disappear down one hole in the ground and not reappear until half an hour and several hundred yards later. Down in the valley on the other side of the tel are a couple of fascinating tombs constructed for wealthy merchants from Sidon and the coast. Further round the one-way system take time to visit the caves created as soft stone was extracted for building work.
The Diggings team has dug here at Mareshah for many years now, both down in the valley near the amphitheatre and up on the hill. For the last few years we have worked on clearing some of the cisterns. It appears that Mareshah was an Edomite (Idumean) town and when the Macabbees took it over and forced everyone to accept Judaism, many of the inhabitants left town and headed for more tolerant parts. Unwilling that their conquerors should move into their homes, they demolished them and tossed the rubble down into the cisterns, thereby blocking the water supply for the invaders.
Return to the main road and head for the coast. Once clear of the hills turn right and after three or four miles you should see the tel of Gezer on your right. You have to follow a series of farm roads turning right and left as necessary to reach the foot of the mound. A road leads up to the top of the tel but bear in mind that you will have to pay for any damage to the bottom of your hire car and proceed carefully. You will probably prefer to park at the bottom and explore on foot.
The city was huge - the tel is twice the size of Megiddo - and appears to have been a major cult centre, for in one of the much weathered trenches dug by the excavators you will find a Canaanite sanctuary of 10' high standing stones. At the time that the sanctuary was built, this would have been the highest point of the city and must have dominated the place. The excavators found a secret cave with a speaking tube by which a hidden priest could sound like the god speaking from under the altar. (This latter was described by the excavators, but I have been unable to find any sign of it.) A graveyard of burnt babies was also found here, providing evidence of human sacrifices. (You can see a film of this site on the NWTV site. There is also a water tunnel 94' deep leading down to a spring beneath the rock - how did people in 2000 BC know the spring was there? You cannot get into the tunnel, but its entrance is marked by a clump of trees growing out of a pit in the ground.
Gaza, although nearby, is not a good place to visit, despite the limited independence granted to it. If you do go, you will need special permission and you will have to use an Arab taxi from the border (Jewish hire cars would not be a good idea!) The Great Mosque is actually a 12th century church dedicated to John the Baptist. In the north-eastern part of the city you can find the tel of ancient Gaza, with remains dating back to the Bronze Age. I have not been there myself.
(With the recent withdrawal of Israeli settlers and forces from Gaza the security situation has greatly deteriorated and it is now both extremely difficult to get from Israel into Gaza and extremely dangerous to be there. There is no doubt that Palestinians have been badly treated by Israel, but they certainly appear to be incapable of self-government.)
Head instead for the coast at Ashkelon, your next stop. It is an impressive site, even though there is not much to see. On your way in look out for the modern shacks that call themselves Delilah Cafe, Dagon Hotel and so on. The ancient remains are enclosed in a nature park but like Ashdod, modern Ashkelon is a tourist resort full of high-rise hotel buildings and amusement arcades, places to avoid.
There are some Roman and Byzantine remains but so little is visible that it is difficult to gain any impression of what this city must have looked like during its heyday. At the north end of the National Park look for the amazing mud-brick Bronze Age walls which tower above even the crusader fortifications. The line of the walls can be seen extending in a huge semi-circle to the south, in many places crowned by the stonework of the crusader walls which were destroyed by Saladin.
Excavations continue at Ashkelon and recently the archaeologists have turned up a fascinating dog cemetery. 700 skeletons have been discovered so far, the majority of which are puppies. The curious thing is that the cemetery, which is in a prime site down by the ancient harbour, only lasted about 50 years during the Persian period. Lawrence Stager, the archæologist, would appreciate suggestions as to why these dogs were so carefully buried. There is no sign that they were sacrificed, people don't normally trouble overmuch about burying puppies and anyway, why give up a large area of city centre sea front to burying dogs?
Return to Jaffa/Tel Aviv. The promontory on which old Joppa was built is at the south end of a long promenade and contains a number of beautiful old Turkish buildings. The summit has been excavated to reveal remains dating back to Bible times and the flight of stairs leading down to Simon the Tanner's house is well marked. An enjoyable hour or so can be spent wandering among the maze of narrow lanes that wander up and down among the beautiful old stone houses.
About half a mile to the north along the promenade is a monument to the American colony in Jaffa, founded in 1866 by Christians who came to try and convert the Jews. Their effort was unsuccessful and Mark Twain tells of meeting a couple of colonists who fled in despair from the hunger and poverty. I believe that a number actually starved to death.
Right at the north end of the promenade the road drops down through a deep underpass, above which tower a number of posh multi-storey hotels. This is Atarim Square and on the seaward side of the underpass you will find an Egged office whose staff are friendly and helpful. At one time for an absurdly low price ($24 in 1994) you could book a seat on an air-conditioned coach to Cairo. (You can also book through Dakkak, but remember Atarim Square, for the coach leaves from here.) The trip took a whole day and you ended up being deposited as the shades of night are falling, right outside the Cairo Museum.
(Note that since the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza the Rafa border crossing is no longer accessible to travellers from Israel and the bus has been suspended. It is not clear how long this situation will continue - though I dare say it will last until the Palestinians learn how to behave themselves like civilised human beings.
All that remains now is to pack your bags and return your hire car to the airport. Picking up or leaving your car at the airport involves a special tax which, though annoying, is cheaper than the bus fare from Tel Aviv to the airport.
If you have time to spare, it is interesting to catch the train which runs between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. There is a station at the airport and the train fare is cheaper even than a sherut or shared taxi. If all runs to plan the journey should take no more than two hours and begins by travelling one stop towards Tel Aviv and then changing to the Jerusalem train. The complication comes in the fact that none of the trains run on time, none are labelled with their destination, and none of the station staff speak English. Getting on the right train is therefore more a matter of luck than judgement.
If and when you manage the feat, the journey is interesting as the train winds up a narrow valley and ends up at a modern terminus near the Biblical Zoo. It used to end within walking distance of the Old City, but after a period when the line was closed people built houses near the line and objected to the noise the resumed train service would cause. The result is that you will have to pay through the nose for a taxi into Jerusalem or battle the complex bus system to find an overcrowded and uncomfortable bus going in the right direction. I have only made the trip once and although I do not regret it, neither would I repeat it.
