Israel 2000 Visit » Israel » 2 Dan »  Viewing 2 Altar at Dan     [Image 2 of 9]  :: Jump To  
  First slide Previous slide      No EXIF Info Index Page Start/Stop the slide show      Next slide Last slide Help
Comment: This is a poor image, but an important one. (Do an internet search and you'll find some better ones.) This is the cult site of the altar set up at Dan. The metal structure indicates the size and shape of the altar. Jeroboam set up golden calves at the extremities of his new northern kingdom, Israel, at Bethel in the South and here at Dan in the North (2 Kings 10:29). His fear was that people would go to Jerusalem in Judah to worship rather than stay in the north. That's our daughter Esther in the bottom left. I'm not sure what she's looking at.
This is Tel Dan in the far North (cf. 'from Dan to Beersheba' in the Bible e.g. Judges 20:1). It is not the most northerly part of the modern state of Israel but here it borders Lebanon to the west. The border was just a few meters from this point. Apparently there have been disputes over exactly where this border is because when the line was drawn on the map the thickness of the pencil line amounted to a significant distance (I can't remember whether it was tens of meters or a kilometer or two). In any case this land is particularly valuable because it contains the Banias springs - one of the major sources of the Jordan river. Water rights are a big issue in the Middle East. This is our son Daniel walking towards the bunker. For those who want to practice their Hebrew, here's a bilingual sign. Notice there are no vowel points. Except for dictionaries, foreign words and children's books, vowel points are usually omitted in Modern Hebrew.
Click for the original image
 
2 Altar at Dan.jpg - 1570 x 1024 - (751KB)
Download file (751KB)
11/5/05 5:05 PM
This is another shot of the altar and platform from a different angle.

This is just a couple hundred meters to the east of the Dan altars. These are the Tel Dan fortifications and some of the excavated walls.

This is another shot of the Tel Dan fortifications further down the hill. This is looking west.

This is just to the right of the previous shot.

Finally this is the entrance to Tel Dan. Of course, originally, the walls were taller than this! :)
Album last updated on 11/13/05 5:28 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.