With our impending departure, we headed back to sight seeing. This past weekend, we went to Tel Ashkelon which was one of the five ancient Philistine cities. Like the rest of Israel, it was conquered and ruled by various cultures (Canaanite, Philistine, Phoenician, Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Islamic and Crusader all took turns at occupation) leaving a hodgepodge of ruins.
The old Canaanite city gate.
Dante trucking through the remains of the Roman basilica.
Isis is on the left, Nike on the right, Dante in the middle.
"By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea..."
Ashquleon is right on the coast if you haven't figured that out yet..
More ruins, more photo ops...
Alejandro hanging out by the remains of the city wall.
It rained the previous week bringing the desert to life.
Many Israelis have never bothered coming to this national park, and the ones that have only come for barbecues and don't bother checking out the ruins. There are literally hundreds of picnic tables in the park. They totally take everything in their backyard for granted. (While I've never been to the soap box derby or football hall of fame, there's a big difference between checking out a bust of Isis vs a bust of OJ!) 
The next day, we went to Bet Gemal where there is a monastery as well as a separate group of nuns that live in a silent community and support themselves by making pottery, tile mosaics, sculptures and paintings. We forgot the camera but I'm going to have to pass on writing a thousand words worthy of the picture we missed taking. Sorry. I still promised Alfonso a posting with pics from Jerusalem. (His favorite place. Mine -- not so much.) I'll try to get that done before we bail.
Love always,
Debi
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