sataf

Two weeks ago we spent two days in Jerusalem with my parents that were here for a visit.

Luckily that was before all the "balagan" (chaos) started and we could enjoy the old city and the market, a trip to the park and just being in the city.

We made a tour to the underground parts of the old city walls. The western wall/ wailing wall you see in the open air is only a small section of the whole thing Herod built. And it is truly amazing to see those old, very old parts and try to imagine how they built this. Some things they could not figure out until today (how could they move stones of over 600 tons?) until then I was not really aware of just how genius Herods was as an architect/ builder- however bad he was in other ways.

On the last day we went out of the city- to the "Sataf". An ancient place with agriculture terraces (some of them restored), two springs and remains of an old village.

It was very nice to walk among the ancient terraces with olive trees, pomegranate, figs and vines growing still/ again today. A beautiful place. We passed also the remains of an old wine press where grapes were trodden and the remains of an old church. There are two springs- we visited only one and had fun to crawl through the tunnel from a cave (probably used to wash laundry) to the open area with a large collection pool.

The area was cultivated using the dry-farming-method and a canal-system.

I loved the walk and the kids too.