Jericho and an Israeli Army Ceremony

On the way to Jericho. We made a stop at Nebi Musa, revered by Muslims as the tomb of Moses. Since we were told in Jordan that Moses died at Mount Nebo, we weren’t quite sure if this was really his tomb. Seems to be a fairly common problem in the Holy Land

We stopped at Hisham’s Palace, built by an Umayyad caliph in the 7th Century. There wasn’t much left- except for a beautiful mosaic.

Then we headed off for downtown Jericho and took the cable car to the top of the Mount and Monastery of Temptation. The mountain was the site of Jesus’ fast of 40 days and 40 nights and his temptation by the devil. Today, there is a Greek Orthodox monastery clinging to the cliff built around the cave where Jesus and the devil met. The walk up the hill (once again in the mid-day heat) was staggering and the ride in the stuffed cable car down the hill even worse!

We were invited by Amir and his family to the Wailing Wall for the swearing in ceremony for one of the branches of the Israeli army. What a site. Troops lined up in front of the Wailing Wall surrounded by their extended families. The ceremony began, only to take a break to allow the troops to go out to see their families. During the ceremony, the newly inducted troops get their machine gun and a Bible! The military is so much a part of the Israeli life. On Saturdays, the families all head out to the field with picnics to spend the day with their sons or daughters by their camps. Not doing military service can preclude you from getting jobs.

After about an hour and a half, it was more than we could take and we made our excuses and headed off to get a burger and a beer (kosher burger- no cheese).