Sunday, June 6

Today is an off-day and most of the masses went on a tour of Beit She'an, an amazing Hellenistic/Roman city of the Decapolis just south of the Sea of Galilee.

But both John and I have been there before and, having our own wheels, we decided to visit another site near the Sea of Galilee: Gamla.

Gamla, like Masada a few years later, held out against the Romans in 67 CE during the Jewish Revolt. Well, for a while they held out, but were eventually utterly destroyed. The Romans were masters of military violence.

Gamla is on a high ridge between 2 valleys so only needed one wall and was easy to defend. The people of Gamla had hope that they could outlast 3 Roman legions. No way. See the link above for further information.

Here you see the ridge between the valleys that is Gamla:(Don't forget to zoom!) In the far distance (we're looking west), over those hills, is the Sea of Galilee. There was a grass fire a few weeks ago that darkened the landscape.Here's a breach in the wall made by the Romans:Here's my roomie John, who traveled down from Canada to be here, next to the car we rented for the month here.