On the third day of our journey through the Northern Kingdom highlands of Israel our first stop was Megaddio. Megaddio sits high above the valley of Jezreel which we know as Armageddon. Megaddio is a world heritage site. At this site they have uncovered 26 different civilizations. The mountain was very strategic throughout history and was one of King Solomon’s Chariot Cities.

Here is our tour group entering the city gates.

This picture shows the Valley of Jezreel (Armageddon) in the background.

Here is a sacrificial alter that was uncovered.

This was a grain bin where they stored grain for the horses. Notice the stairs going down into the storage area.

And here are the stables. The more horses and the more chariots a King had the greater his army.

All the date trees came from the workers doing the excavations. As they ate dates while doing the excavation they would spit the seeds out. Once the seeds sprouted they grew very well here.

Next we went to Mount Carmel which is the site of the Prophet Elijah’s showdown with the prophets of Baal.

King Ahab was the baddest King of The Northern Kingdom and his wife Queen Jezzabell was an evil lady. She was on a mission to wipe Christian worshipers off the face of the earth. At Mount Carmel King Ahab had his God of Thunder and Lightning pray for fire to light the sacrifice but he was unable to accomplish this. Elijah made trenches around the alter for the sacrifice and filled them with water. Then he prayed that God would bring fire down from the heavens to show God’s Glory. God answered his pray and Elijah was victorious here against King Ahab. The first thing he did after the battle was to kill all of King Ahab’s Priests.

In our time of devotion this afternoon Lon suggested that maybe when we pray we should pray with the same intention. William and I will take this to heart in our prayers.

Next we went to Nazareth to visit the Basilica Of Annunciation . It is a very busy city now and not much of the old city left. We did however get to see the well where the angel Gabriel met Mary at the well and told her she would have Jesus as a son. This site too has a church built over it but we did get to go inside to see the well.

We found it interesting to learn that modern Nazareth is an Arab city. It is 70% Muslim and 30% Christian.

Our last stop for the day was at the museum near Tiberias where two young men found a boat from Jesus’s time near the shore of the Sea of Galilee. It was quite a project to remove the 2000 year old boat from the mud where it had been preserved but what a treasure to have found.