tel aviv, jaffa, & caesarea

we flew into tel aviv at night and passed out once we got to our hotel. in the morning we were greeted by this view outside our balcony...

we mostly played at the beach our first day since our hotel was right on the water. i cannot get over how beautiful the mediterranean sea was - so clear and blue! we loved being able to eat breakfast each morning from our hotel looking out onto the ocean.

our hotel in tel aviv was probably my second favorite of the whole trip. the food buffet was just incredible.

view from breakfast

dinner

the next day we were on to our tour! 

jaffa/joppa

hebrew, "beauty"

solomon's port city for construction of the temple in jerusalem (2 chr. 2:16)

jonah embarked from here to tarshish to flee from the lord (jonah 1:3)

peter raised tabitha to life (acts 10:5-6, 32)

peter had a vision (acts 11:5-21) while dwelling with simon the tanner here

crusader richard the lion-hearted built a citadel here

saladin's brother captured it and slaughtered 20,000 christians

razed by napoleon in 1799 and rebuilt by the turks

the city was just south of tel aviv, so we still had views of tel aviv and the mediterranean sea.

we visited the house believed to be the spot where simon the tanner lived. it was here that peter received a vision about bringing the gospel to the gentiles.

i also loved talking about the story of jonah here... 

"shall i not spare ninevah?"

^^ the left column depicts jacob's dream, the right column depicts the sacrifice of isaac, and the top depicts the fall of jericho. all with tel aviv in the background. i loved the contrast of modern tel aviv with ancient jaffa.

caesarea

named for augustus caesar

located on mediterranean 30 miles north of joppa

built by herod the great around 22 BC to please the romans

capital of the roman government for five centuries

contained lavish palaces, public buildings, a theater, a hippodrome, and an amphitheater

paul was imprisoned here for two years, left from here for trial in rome

peter preached to cornelius (acts 10)

philip resided and preached here (acts 8:40; 21:8-9)

caesarea was probably one of our most favorite stops - we could have spent all day here. 

 

 ^^remains from herod's enormous pool right on the water. they would pump in fresh water for it! we got to see the remains of herod's lavish palace with beautiful mosaics covering the floors. this guy really had luxury figured out. 

^^we saw the steps which paul most likely walked down to board the ship that would take him to rome to stand trial, since he was a roman citizen. the steps our tour guide is standing on used to lead right into the water or dock. 

surprisingly, after caesarea we still had a couple more sites to hit that day! soon to come... 

*israel video*