Day 8 - US Embassy, Valley of Elah, Ayalon Institute Museum, the Herodium and the Israeli Museum.

Today we kicked off the morning by stopping by the US Embassy in Jerusalem.  Back on the bus we traveled to the Valley of Elah.  Here we walked up the dry creek bed and viewed the area where David defeated Goliath.  We each searched for our own five smooth stones and discussed the courage of David not only to face Goliath but also be courageous enough to ask Saul if he could be the one to go to battle.

  

We visited the Ayalon Institute Museum which produced bullets for the Israeli army from 1945 to 1948.  This secret underground factory was planned and perfected for fifteen years prior to going into operations and was instrumental in Israels independence.  This is an amazing story and I would suggest you research it.

  

Next stop was the Herodium, King Herods palace/fortress.  Rising 758 meters above sea level King Herod had slave build this man made mountain.  Upon it he built a massive palace with giant water storage withing the mountain.  We all discussed how a king with so much power was terrified and threatened of a small baby that was born just miles away.

  

   

Our final stop was the Israeli museum where we viewed a large model of the city and the 2nd temple.  Joe and Mickey discussed different areas of the city and described what we would be seeing in the next two days.  We then toured the Dead Sea Scrolls museum, viewing the different parchments that were found including the entire book of Isaiah measuring over 24 feet long.  Unfortunately we were not able to photograph inside.  The final museum was that of antiquities.  We saw many items including the Pontius Pilate stone by spoke about when we went to Caesarea. We also viewed Herods sarcophagus excavated from the Herodium along with Philistine and Canaanite antiquities.