Nazareth, the next stop.

Our journey into Nazareth was a surprise.  One expected a desert-like location but it was a very busy city. The streets are filled with cars and very few people obeying the signs. They have some round a- bouts that really are aggression centers for cars to honk at each other. The streets are narrow and the sidewalks narrow too. The kids were getting out of school and they were everywhere.  There were many adults and it was a very crowded busy place.  The city we were in was a lot older than these more modern buildings in the photos.

Nazareth was the city in which Jesus was raised. Mary and Joseph had lived lived there before Jesus was born. They walked to Bethlehem to register their census and Jesus was born there.  For a while God sent them to Egypt, as King Herod wanted Jesus dead.  He wanted all one year old  boys to be killed to make sure Jesus would not survive. Being warned, Joseph took his family down and into   Egypt. Once Herod had died and the danger was gone, Mary and Joseph returned with Jesus to  Nazareth.

 

We visited an area in Nazareth where they recreated a typical city that represented the way life would be at the time of Jesus. You can see the contrast of this park in contrast to the city behind it.

Stables were represented where sheep and goats lived. The carved out area in the rock represented how they could keep their livestock safe while there was bad weather.

There were two donkeys at the recreated village. One was allowed to be out and tied to a tree.  The other one was used in the building where they crush olives into oil. The donkey would walk the stone roller around in a trough to crush olives for oil and to remove the seeds.  The donkeys are exchanged for  the duty throughout the day.

The photo to the side here is a gardener who is planting the field.

I am sharing a stray photo that I had of a sheep seeking hay through the poles.

This wagon looks like it would be useful to carry stone or crops.  I assume they used donkeys for this also as I am not certain if they had horses in the area two  thousand years ago.

The tree reminded me of a weathered olive trees at the Mount of Olives. It did fit in with the character of village.Everyone dressed in period clothing to help recreate the site.

This was described as a grape stomping area.  The juice would be ladled up from the low part of the rock bottomed area.

It looks like cabbages to me but I am not certain. It is an arid land so carrying water to the plants would be needed to keep them growing.

This is a building that was to be the future potters shack. They had a wheel and some pottery out to show its purpose. No potter has been hired to work in the shop. 

This man was a carpenter, Making wood items for the village. He made tools and spindles for wrapping wool yarn. The recreation showed how these items were needed  to help a community do household tasks.

Wooden bowls and spoons were essential at that time period of history.

This women was creating cords from wool of a sheep.  As she spin out wool she had to wrap it around spools.  Then she also was needed to weave the cords into cloth.

Spinning was done with a spindle twining the wool into a thin string for use on the loom.

A small temple was created to resemble one of the era. There were windows around the top to allow it to be lighted. The columns were made from stone and the floor was covered with stone. It is a dusty village so the stone floors appeared to have a coating of sand on them.

A Jewish village would have a temple in which to pray and also an altar for reading of the scrolls. This would be a strong structure compared to the use of maybe a tent when out in a desert setting. Two tiered seating was all along the outside walls. Oil lamps would have been used when more lighting  was needed.

As we left the tour we were give ceramic oil lamps that represented the one made in Jesus' time. Our bus leaves to take us north into the area  of the Sea of Galilee.Nazareth is in the district of Galilee.