On the 13th day of our honeymoon we left our beautiful and wonderful zimmer in Hadnes and moved on to our next place – Beit Oren guest house on the Carmel Mountain, where we would spend our last two nights of our honeymoon. That day we visited three national parks: Kursi – on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, Hammat Tiberias national park – in Teberias and Tzipori – in the Galilee.
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Kursi
Kursi is an ancient Byzantine Christian church and monastery built on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. Kursi is traditionally regarded as the place where Jesus released a demon possessed man and then sent the demons into a herd of pigs, which later ran into the water and drowned. You can read about it in the Bible in the gospel of Luke Chapter 8 verses 26 to 39.
Here you can see Thamara in front of the reconstructed remnants of Kursi:
Kursi has a very beautiful mosaic floor; here you can see two doves and a basket.
There was a wall with a window there; we’re not sure what the window was used for, maybe for puppet shows. But we used it to frame our photo.
Hamat Teberias National Park
Later we arrived to Tiberias where we visited Hamat Teberias National Park. Hammat Tiberias is near the hot water springs of Tiberias. It provides an interesting view of the history of Tiberias. There are also excavations of an ancient synagogue with a marvelous mosaic floor.
A general view of the synagogue:
Two seven candle lamps:
A lion:
An image representing the time of the Hebrew month of Tishrei:
A Greek writing with the Hebrew word ‘Shalom’ (peace):
A view of the Sea of Galilee from Hammat Tiberias hot springs:
Later we got back into the car and had a banana before driving to our next place in the Galille. Thamara took this funny picture of Ilan eating a banana.
Tzipori – An Israeli Mosaic Celebration
An hour later we reached Tzipori national park. Tzipori (or Tippori in Wikipedia) is an ancient city influenced by many nations and cultures such as the Israeli, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Muslim and the crusaders. Was a very important city in central Galilee about 6 kilometers from the city of Nazareth. In the picture you can see some of the findings in Tzipori:
The streets of the city:
It was interesting to see the road marks made by the many wagons and chariots there.
A mosaic image of a Roman soldier:
A mythological creature:
Mosaic floor of a Roman villa:
Music players:
A face of a woman known as the Mona Lisa of the Galilee:
A fortress built by the Crusaders and later by the Ottomans:
They used a sarcophagus (a stone coffin) for a corner stone:
Later it became very cloudy and it started to rain and we ran for shelter.
Beit Oren guesthouse and dinner at a cowboy restaurant
Next, we drove to Beit Oren guesthouse on mount Carmel. It was dark when we arrived. we found our room and were very hungry. This guesthouse doesn’t offer any supper only great breakfasts! There are many restaurants in the nearby Druze village of Isfiya and a great cowboy restaurant called Cat Ballou. We decided to visit Cat Ballou, which was within a walking distance.
Outside the restaurant there were horses since they offered horse ridding on the Carmel Mountain.
We entered the restaurant and were surprised that to see all those people wearing cowboy hats, speaking American English as if we were in America. The place was full of people. We tried to find a table but it was too full because of a cowboy party. Later we talked with some of the workers there and they set a special quite table for us. Finally we could satisfy our hunger with a delicious meal!
Thamara at Cat Ballou restaurant:
