Cesarea Phillipi....and Tel of Dan.

At the time when the land was divided by tribes, this land was given the name of Dan. It is recorded in the book of Judges.  The area was originally held by Canaanites. The people were from Crete. The whole area of Israel is considered the panhandle of Galilee. The earliest of maps of that area shows that the Dan assignment by God extended far above where the present country line. The city of Tyre was in Israel and it is now in Lebanon.

The area has had a Jewish presence for many more years, earlier than the Muslim who claimed that it was their land. Their religion had not been invented yet. There are two large springs that spill out large amounts of water from the surrounding mountains, making the whole area park-like with deciduous trees.

The stone railing is built up to the small river's making it a pleasant place to walk. You can see the cattails growing in the stream along with other water plants. You can hear rapids from different parts of the river.

The streams build up and become the headwaters of the Jordan River.  The river is a major source for water to all of Israel as it travels all the through the Sea of Galilee and beyond.

At the side of this park area is Mount Hermon.  It is a range of mountains along the stream. In a area at the base of the mountain near there is a site of a palace in ruin. It has been there for thousands of years. 

 

At the site of the palace are carvings of niches along with a cave. The niches were created to hold false gods, idols. for people to worship.  The Jewish people were influenced at the time that they lived there.  One of the idols that your are familiar with would be golden calves and wooden Baals.  The Jewish people were familiar with this kind of worship as they saw it being done in Egypt.  So the people in the area who were not Jewish encouraged this type of beliefs and the  Jewish people joined in to the practice.

The practice of idol worship got the Jewish people  throughout Israel into trouble with their God and he allowed the Babylonians drag them off into slavery.The land became vacant and different wandering desert tribes moved in to the  area.

When you first see the carved niches in the mountain you do feel that something special was placed into them. The Jewish people changed their people's fate for quite a few years before they were really able to return in 1949. It was more than 2,000 years.

As we left this area we were bused a few miles south to go on a walking tour up in the hills of Dan. As we meandered through a lot of forest to go the two sites, we crossed bridges that went over the Jordan River.

My point that the springs put out a lot of water is proven here by seen all of the water rushing out of the area.

While on the hill of the Tel of Dan we find this gate.  It was a part of a walled-in area that controlled who was allowed to enter.  The whole piece is so fragile that the canopy was built to protect it from the weather. This whole area was another time period from the many different sets of people who lived in the area. When the   Jewish people first lived here their were Crete people who did not build the different things up on this hill.

I have seen tourist spots on the net showing that the doors do open.  I imagine there is just ruins of walls behind them.

The stairs are really rugged remains of what were probably smooth steps at one time.

Walking further up the hill is another time period where a king of the area, not Jewish, who would sit here at the gate and count his livestock as they passed by him.

In the same area you can see the remaining walls of the walled city area. The stones place on the ground could have been original ones but then they were filled in so the road would be smooth. These rocks were very difficult to walk on. It is interesting to see that the Jordon River is keeping things growing in the area with deciduous trees. Israel is more desert than this so the river really helped make things grow, including grass.

Further up on the hill is another generation of a civilization.  King Herod build a worship center here hoping it would compete with the Temple in Jerusalem.  He didn't want the people in Northern part of the country to travel down to Jerusalem.  The ironic part of this area was that false gods were worshiped here instead of God. The king thought it would maybe dilute down the worship of God for other gods that the  Jewish people saw being worshiped in Egypt.  Three of the last photos were used from a web site called BiblePlaces. com.  It is a good place to visit to see all of Israel.