Brealynn, Jane, Me, Emily, Kristen, and Sean on some stairs in one of the dove coats at Maresha

 Our field trip this week was a big one! But it was so much fun! This first picture was taken at Mareshah, one of the manned fortresses from the Kingdom of Judah. This place is full of white chalk so there were lots of caves built for different things. One of them had an olive press inside, some were cisterns, and some dove coats (I am most likely saying those wrong). They would raise dove for various reasons and so in the caves would be little holes where doves would live. The picture above is a couple of my friends and me matching. So in case you haven't noticed, I wear a lot of white V-necks. They are the best thing to wear here!! Don't worry though, while it looks like I am wearing the same shirt, I promise you I have at least three different shirts that I make sure to wash often!

Lachish

This place was really cool! It was full of ruins and even a Holy of Holies. This is pretty much the only place that evidence remains of an siege ramp up to the fortress. The sides of this hill are really steep so I guess the best way to attach it was to build a ramp up one of the sides. This siege occurred in 701 BC. They even found a letter in the gate of the fortress that told of the arrival of the Babylonian army of Nebuchadnezzar. The flags in the above picture are the Israel flag (left) and the flag marking a National Park (right). The picture below is of one of the walls (I think my eyes are closed).

Wall at Lachish

Me at Elah Valley

 The picture above overlooks the Elah Valley. If you read 1 Samuel 17 2-3 we learn how cool this valley is because it is where David fought Goliath! This valley was also really pretty partially because it is full of trees unlike so many of the places we go. After we looked around up here we went down into the valley and got to pick rocks out of a riverbed and use slingshots to throw them at a cliff. I don't want to brag or anything, but I am pretty sure, if needed, I could do some serious damage with one of those slings :)... but really.

My roommate Kara and I standing inside the Bell Caves

 These caves were impressive! They made these caves by starting from the top and making a hole. They would chisel in circles (you can kind of see the marks going around the wall in this picture) and one chunks o rock fell off, they would know they were deep enough and would start another hole to add another part to the cave. The acoustics were amazing and it was really cool to sing some hymns in here. In different parts of the cave, you could see certain carvings, like the rosette and the word Allah (God).

Beth Shemesh and the Sorek Valley

This was the last place we went. It was really pretty because the sun was starting to set and even cooler is that Beth is the Hebrew word for house and Shemesh is the Hebrew word for sun. This place and valley is the setting for many of the stories of Samson. But it was a beautiful way to end the day.