Brendan Doms

Our first stop of the day was the coastal ruins of Caesarea, which was an ancient trading port and administrative center of some importance, given its convenient location. And yes, it's named after an actual Caesar. In this case it was named by Herod (yes, that Herod) for Caesar Augustus. The Roman influence on this part of the world is there for anyone to see; with their contributions to names and architecture, it's obvious they held the land for a long time.

The hippodrome in Caesarea. It's a horse and chariot racing arena. Like ancient NASCAR with animals.

Perhaps one of the most impressive - and intact - ancient wonders we saw on the trip was the Roman aqueduct right outside Caesarea. It stretched unbroken for miles, just to carry fresh water. This early feat of engineering may not seem like much compared to our modern water systems, but considering its construction date of several millennia ago, it's awe-inspiring.

The Roman aqueduct leading to Caesarea. It goes on as far as the eye can see.

During the bus ride to our next destination we learned about the Druze, an ethnic and religious group that lived in the hills we were driving through. Considering the history of Israel it maybe shouldn't have been surprising to find yet another religion, but for me it was discovering a whole culture I hadn't known about. That's one of the reasons I love travelling internationally: there's constant learning you just can't get any other way.

We ascended the peak of Mt. Carmel for some birds-eye panoramic views of the nearby hills and valleys. Atop the mountain is a monastery for an eponymous Catholic order, the Carmelites. This was just the first of many Catholic buildings and grounds we would visit, as they seem to have acquired the land for many sacred sites. It made me wonder if the Roman influence was really as ancient as I thought.

Next we went to Megiddo, ruins of a stone city on a hill. It's important as a historical and archaeological site - indeed, it's an official World Heritage Site - simply because of how old it is. There are some 26 or more layers of civilization to be unearthed there. But it's also notable because some believe it will be the site of a military engagement during the apocalypse. The Greek term for this is comes directly from the Hebrew for "Mount of Megiddo" ("Har Megiddo") and should be recognizable to anyone familiar with the modern English vernacular: Armageddon.

Literally Armageddon.

On to Nazareth, an incredibly tourist-driven, cramped city on a hillside. There were loud billboards and hawkers of street wares. We were ushered into a life-sized model village meant to recreate what life was like two thousand years ago. Unremarkably, life back then consisted largely of grueling, repetitive agricultural work. We saw olive trees, a human foot-powered stone wine press, and live animals including goats, sheep, and donkeys.

An ancient wine press. One or two people would stomp on the grapes in the flat area, and you can see the drainage canal where the juice would flow down, separated from the skins and seeds.

For me, the highlight of this fake village was the fully functional olive press. We were even given a live demonstration of how it worked: it's a mill structure that both turns a millstone and raises and lowers a wooden beam press, but powered by a human and/or donkey instead of water. And we learned that olive oil was not just used for cooking, but also as fuel for lamps, in cosmetics, in medicine, and in religious rituals. Olive oil was so important not just to ancient Israel, but to ancient Greece, Rome, and the entire Mediterranean, that the English word for "oil" can actually trace its roots back to the Latin and Greek for "olive." We also learned that the modern prefix of "virgin" simply means that the olives have been mechanically pressed only, without the use of chemicals, which means that all of the olive oil produced in a village like this would be labelled "virgin" if sold today. As for why the machine itself is required when the wine press just used human feet, the explanation was simple: feet break the seeds inside what they step on. For grapes and wine, this is fine. For olives the seeds are extremely acidic and crushing them ruins the oil's flavor.

An excellent example of an olive tree. Useful for a great many things, but as you can see, not lumber.

When the sun set we went inside a diamond factory for a quick tour. Caprice diamonds told us that Israel specializes in cutting and polishing diamonds. They did have some great looking merchandise, but it was obviously all very expensive.

After that we finally arrived at our home for the next couple nights, the Gai Beach Hotel in Tiberius. Yes, it's another city named after a Roman Emperor. The hotel itself was large and accommodating. It was a great place to crash after a long day.