Random Israel Stuff

·When the War of Israeli Independence ended in late 1948, they true the truce line with a green crayon.
·The Hill of Evil council north of Jerusalem is where the UN currently has its buildings.
·They think they’ve found a tower build by Nehemiah to a retaining wall built by David.
·Hezekiah’s Tunnel gets zigzaggy in the middle because its when the two sides were trying to find each other.
·No one knows why Hezekiah didn’t build the tunnel in a straight line, they had the technology a year earlier.
·Finding the Qumran scrolls brought the oldest original scroll of scripture to 150BC.
·There are 49 cisterns and 43 passages underground on the area called Harem esh Sharif, the Temple Mount.
·The Temple Mount has layers of history: the binding of Isaac, David bought the threshing floor from a Jebusite, Solomon built the temple, the Assyrians destroyed it, they rebuilt the temple and then it was destroyed again by the Romans. The Byzantine Christians left it in ruins and the Moslems built the Dome of the Rock in 691. Since then it has been under Moslem control and the Jews have only had real access to the Western Wall.
·Jerusalem is 2500’ feet above sea level and gets and average of 25” of rain a year.
·There is a park in Israel commemorating the bicentennial of the US and a memorial to the Challenger incident. They also have a park called Canada park.
·The route Samson took from home to Timnah now has a high speed train following it, that train is now known as the Samson Express by 45 JUCers including myself.
·The tribe of Dan was originally given the coastal lands of the Mediterranean. Most of them chose instead to move northeast to above the Sea of Galilee. What would have happened if Dan had stayed?
·Solomon must have controlled Joppa and Gezer to get cedars from Lebanon to build his house and the temple. He married the Pharaoh’s (who had control of Gezer) daughter and Pharaoh gave him the city as a wedding present.
·Jericho is one of only three cities mentioned in the conquest as having been completely destroyed.
·In the day of our Lord, they would bury people in niches and seal it with rocks, wait about a year, remove the bones from the niche and put them in ossuaries to reuse the niche. Gives a new meaning to ‘let the dead bury their dead’ – doesn’t it?
·During the Passover Feast the population of Jerusalem swells, they may have been people camping out on the Mount of Olives. Maybe the Mount wasn’t as empty as we always portray it.
·Herod the Great was a ridiculously rich, psycho, mean man. He built fortresses everywhere and killed lots of people.