One of the items on our itinerary that I was not all that excited about was a long drive out to Beit Lehi, an active archaeological dig 22 miles south of Jerusalem. However, the drive turned out to be very pleasant:
In
Innocents Abroad, Mark Twain pontificated that Palestine is
"a desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds--a silent mournful expanse. . . . A desolation is here that not even imagination can grace with the pomp of life and action. . . . There was hardly a tree or shrub anywhere. Even the olive and the cactus, those fast friends of the worthless soil, had almost deserted the country."
It's too bad that Twain visited this region in the middle of summer and right after the 1861 war between Christians and Muslims. We had the good sense to go in March when the fields were lush with new growth and there were PLENTY of cacti:
The further into the countryside that we drove, the more beautiful the scenery was:
Is this how you picture Israel?
Me neither.
