Israel 2000 Visit » Israel » 13 Water »  Viewing 12 Lush Climate     [Image 12 of 12]  :: Jump To  
  First slide Previous slide      No EXIF Info Index Page Start/Stop the slide show      You have reached the last slide You have reached the last slide Help
Comment: This, of course, is what a land can look like when it has plenty of water - lots of green grass and puffy clouds. Now some familiar Bible passages take on new significance.

For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. They shall spring up among the grass like willows by flowing streams. This one will say, 'I am the LORD's,' another will call on the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand, 'The LORD's,' and name himself by the name of Israel." (Isaiah 44:3-5)
Another important source of water, aside from springs and rivers, is rain. Apparently, when it does rain in the winter months it can really come down so it is important to catch and store that water. This is a water cistern in Beth-shemesh near the graves that I showed you earlier. That's my dad and I walking down into it. Cisterns are covered and dark to keep the water relatively fresh. This is a small one. We went into some cisterns in the Old City just north of the Temple Mount area which were much larger. Also Masada has enormous cisterns which were used to store water in that dry, harsh environment. Cisterns also have to be plastered to keep them from leaking. A cracked cistern is good for nothing. For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. (Jeremiah 2:13)

This is another shot of the same cistern.

This is one of my favourite photographs. That's Daniel and me standing on a section Herodian aqueduct. Aqueducts, of course, are another source of water - or channel at least. We came across this one on our trip down to Jericho. We found this just there beside the road where it has been for the past 2000 years. No signs, no protection from the elements, as unremarkable as the old corner gas station you may pass on a forgotten Saskatchewan back road. I find it all quite amazing. If you look at the large image you can see the cement plaster that lined the water channel. I like the contrast of this ancient water carrier against the background of the barren Judean hills. But actually, these hills are not as barren as you might think. Believe it or not, we saw sheep and goats grazing on these hills. It looked like they were eating rocks but I guess there must have be some vegetation close to the ground. If you look closely, just to the left of Daniel's head, you'll see a Bedouin tent. They live out here and pasture their flocks!

This is a much larger aqueduct at Caesarea. Here we are looking through one of the arches out towards the Mediterranean Sea. King Herod built Caesarea between 22 and 10 B.C. but the area did not have any natural springs or rivers so he had to build this aqueduct. It brought water from a town named Shuni about 7 1/2 km away. This was a significant engineering challenge because both towns are so near sea level and, of course, the aqueduct would need an incline for the water to flow. Herod's engineers were successful though; the aqueduct descends by a mere 20 centimeters for every kilometer!

This is definitively not Israel. On our way home we stopped by in Germany for a few days and I was struck by the contrast. Here we have a ditch full of water next to some sheep and green grass. I wouldn't normally have given it much attention but after having been in Israel, at least in the summer, seeing an open pool of water in a ditch seemed quite remarkable.
Click for the original image
 
12 Lush Climate.jpg - 1570 x 1024 - (402KB)
Download file (402KB)
11/10/05 10:32 PM
Album last updated on 11/13/05 5:30 PM
Powered by JAlbum 5.2 and BluPlusPlus skin
© Charles Grebe
This slide show is dedicated to my mother who made possible our summer 2000 visit to Israel.