Honoring a Fallen Friend

I post a lot about my travels around the world…so much so that I (and most likely anybody reading this) sometimes find it hard to believe that I do anything but travel.

It's important to remember that the entire reason I am able to do this is because my husband is a Foreign Service Officer.  That job comes with many perks, but those perks often come with great risk.  Even with the current, ongoing conflict between Israel and Gaza (which I will discuss in depth someday soon, once I've been able to fully process my feelings), we have been afforded a relatively safe environment in which to live and explore.

Not everyone is so fortunate.  

On Sunday, April 6th, 2014 we joined colleagues in honoring Anne Smedinghoff, who lost her life one year ago that very day in service to her country.

Below is the text and accompanying photograph that I posted to the consulate's Facebook page the following morning.

On Sunday, employees of the consular section joined colleagues from Consulate General Jerusalem and US Embassy Tel Aviv to donate books to Pioneers Baccalaureate School in Nablus. This event was coordinated to honor US diplomat Anne Smedinghoff, who was killed on April 6, 2013, while delivering textbooks to a school in southern Afghanistan. The school, less than a decade old, features a mix of Palestinian and international educators and has a strong focus on bilingual studies. The donation will be put to good use by a student body that has enthusiastically read through the current literary offerings on campus. Pictured: Children eagerly line up between classes to check out books from the school’s small but growing library.

Beit Guvrin-Maresha National Park

Saturdays in Jerusalem can be (i.e. always are) a bit of a drag.  Most shops and restaurants are closed for Shabbat, meaning there's not a lot to do without some forward thinking.  We aren't always good at planning in advance, but Israel's cup runneth over with so many parks and excavation sites that it's fairly easy to come up with something to do at the last minute if you're willing to hop behind the wheel.  

A lack of planning in advance is what led to our exploring yet another national park on Saturday, March 29th with our good friend Naser, a Palestinian who lives in the West Bank and thinks coming to Jerusalem on a Saturday (which we've established is a bit of a drag) to see us sounds like fun.  Bless his heart.  

Beit-Guvrin-Maresha National Park can be found approximately 50km southwest of Jerusalem.  The 1,250 acre park contains the ruins of Maresha, an important town in the Kingdom of Judah during the First Temple period, and Beit Guvrin, a town previously known as Eleutheropolis during the Roman era.  

Were you to ask me, I could best summarize the experience by saying something like "You walk around a lot.  Don't go in March.  I went in March and it was really hot.  There are lots of caves, so that's pretty neat.  It's definitely not as hot in the caves."

UNESCO is a bit more cultured than I am, so let's see what they have to say. 

The "Caves of Maresha and Bet-Guvrin in the Judean Lowlands as a Microcosm of the Land of the Caves" were inscribed upon the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites sometime between our visit and this writing.  So we must have made the place more special somehow…though I don't find our names in the write-up...  

The archaeological site contains some 3,500 underground chambers distributed among distinct complexes carved in the thick and homogenous soft chalk of Lower Judea under the former towns of Maresha and Bet Guvrin. Situated on the crossroads of trade routes to Mesopotamia and Egypt, the site bears witness to the region’s tapestry of cultures and their evolution over more than 2,000 years from the 8th century BCE—when Maresha, the older of the two towns was built—to the time of the Crusaders. These quarried caves served as cisterns, oil presses, baths, columbaria (dovecotes), stables, places of religious worship, hideaways and, on the outskirts of the towns, burial areas. Some of the larger chambers feature vaulted arches and supporting pillars.

Thanks, UNESCO!  I'll take it from here.

Maresha was founded during the Israelite period and continued in existence until the law Hellenistic period.  Olive growing was a major source of income in Maresha.  The oil press seen below dates to the Hellenistic period.  Olives harvested in the surrounding groves were brought into the city for pressing.  Twenty olive presses have been discovered within the city, all dating to the 3rd-2nd centuries.  This is the one of only two group photos from the day.  Either we don't know how to pose in front of things, or our photographer has a lot to learn about composition.

Life in an M.C. Escher
Painting

Excavations in the early 1990s revealed an urban section that included residential and shopping areas from the 3rd-2nd centuries.  These residences quarried cisterns underneath the houses that were used for a variety of purposes:  water halls, baths, oil presses, storage facilities, etc.  Each cistern had its own staircase descending from the house above.  Connections between them that allowed access from one to another without having to first ascend to ground level came during renovations in late periods.

It seems that I've spent a lot of time in cisterns since moving to Jerusalem…certainly more than ever before.  I like them.  Exploring the underground world, comparing the archaeology of different communities, flirting with waterborne disease.  Speaking of, I won't be sharing a picture of the water pool here due to it not turing out very well…but I assure you it was particularly grody.

Beit Guvrin was an ancient city that rose in importance after Maresha was destroyed.  It existed from the late Hellenistic until the end of the Byzantine period.  Most of the bell caves were dug during the Byzantine and early Islamic period as a means of harvesting chalk to cover the roads.  Bell caves are so called because of their unique shape, which results from the method of quarrying.  First, a round shaft is cut through the hard surface rock.  The shaft is then enlarged and rectangular blocks are removed from the cave with ropes, until they look like a bell…because why not?

We next visited the Roman ampitheatre, because apparently they are everywhere...

…and wrapped up our day at a Crusader-church-turned-mosque…because those are everywhere, too.  Not sure what the deal is with the smiley rock, but he was too cute not to share.  

As our day wound down, we headed back to Jerusalem.  The sun would be setting soon.  Shabbat would end, and normal life would resume.  We would be able to go out to eat.  Drink at our favorite bar.  Go to a movie.  The possibilities were endless.

What?  No.  Pssshhh.  We had been walking around in the sun all day.  We went to bed.

Mitzpe Ramon and the Best Birthday Ever!

When we travel, whether it be a short weekend trip or an extended getaway, the one thing we tend to always cheap out on is the hotel room.  (Oh, yeah, and the flight, too.  No economy seat is too good for us, no sir.)  Our philosophy is that the room is just for sleeping, so why spend unnecessary amounts of money on something you're barely going to look at?

My last birthday was the exception that has made us see the light.

When we lived in Guadalajara, we always spent TJ's birthday weekend in Puerto Vallarta, while my cumpleaños always seemed to be represented by a peaceful weekend at home.  TJ decided that, this time around, my birthday would receive the getaway treatment.  But where to go?

Several of our coworkers had already taken weekend trips to, and raved about, the Beresheet Hotel in Mitzpe Ramon.  And that's just where we spent the weekend of March 21st-23rd.

The Beresheet Hotel is part of the Isrotel Exclusive Collection, which basically means it's one of the chain's more exquisite offerings (and future weekend trips would sadly prove that hotels not in the Exclusive Colleciton were…not so exquisite…).  

The amazing accommodations featured a comfy queen bed and a full living room...

and a private infinity pool!!!

The hotel featured two delicious Kosher restaurants; The Lobby Bar offers a selection light dairy meals, while the Rosemary Restaurant offers a gourmet meat buffet. 

Beautiful, right?  Now, I'm not sure why I know anything about this town beyond what was to be found at the hotel, but we somehow managed to drag ourselves away for a bit of sightseeing and exploring.

The hotel is located on the edge of the towering cliffs that slope down into Makhtesh Ramon, a crater running 24 miles long, 5 miles wide, and 1600 feet deep. which was the next stop after Moa on the old Nabatean Spice Route.  The term "crater" is a bit of a misnomer, as such language would indicate that this land formation was the result of a meteor impact.  Instead, this makhtesh (the world's largest) was created by erosion.  A geological landform unique to Israel's Negev desert, a makhtesh has steep walls of resistant rock surrounding a deep closed valley.   

We awoke bright and early on Saturday morning and took in the breathtaking sight of sunrise over the makhtesh.  The world transformed before our eyes, rapidly changing from black, to purple, to blue, yellow, and orange.  

Following the sunrise and some serious caffeine infusion, we headed over ot the Mitzpe Ramon Desert Sculpture Park, located conveniently right beside the hotel.  Just like it sounds, this is basically a park, located in the desert, that has the occasional sculpture thrown about for good measure.  I don't believe we managed to navigate the entirety of the park, but we got the gist.  And now, so have you!

Making our way back toward the hotel, nature provide a perfect segue into our next activity.  Standing next to a sculpture was an Ibex mother and her kids.  

Now, being wild, aggressive animals with pointy horns, we opted not to pet them.  

But we DID pet the animals at the Mitzpe Ramon Alpaca Farm!  Would you just look at that segue!  BAM!  This seemed like a good use of time, as we love petting fluffy animals, and TJ had been a fan of alpacas since his trip to Ecuador.  I'm not sure what I expected, but it should have been a rundown family operated farm filled with filthy alpacas, llamas, and camels that wanted nothing more than to spit on me.  Don't take that as a criticism, as it was a lot of fun and an excellent use of time.  

I was happy to, after six months living in the Middle East, finally interact with a camel...

while TJ was overjoyed to have met Carol Channing.

  

We concluded our day with some exploration of the makhtesh itself before heading back to the hotel for more swimming, eating, and living in temporary luxury.  The crater and surrounding area forms Israel's largest national park, the Ramon Nature Reserve.

Ha-Minsara (The Caprentry Shop)

The next morning was filled with even more swimming, eating (I'm telling you, this hotel has the most amazing food), and living in temporary luxury.  I was treated to a birthday massage at the hotel's spa right before checkout.  Afterward, TJ met me in the lobby with a gift basket filled with massage oils, a tea light/aromatic oil burner, and enough oils to last until my next birthday.  

It was the best birthday of my entire life and is still my favorite weekend in Israel.  I could honestly gush about it enough to fill another post.  Maybe I will…if a certain someone would like to take me for a repeat visit next year...