Day 3 Part 4

We feast sumptuously on our schnitzel and falafala but feel a little chilled.  Has the sun gone behind a cloud?  Nope.  It doesn't take much coaxing to get us back on the bus.  For the first time since coming to Israel, we are not warm. Not freezing mind you, well Indiana Jolie is freezing, but it's just not warm / almost hot like it has been for the three days we have been here.

Our buses continue up the steep mountain road we are on, the diesels straining as they carry the 45 occupants of the "red bus" up Mt. Hermon.  

The sights are interesting, it looks like a resort, a ski area possibly.  It is. There are little alpine type buildings, kitschy cutouts of snowmen and candy canes adorn the sides of the road and entrances to the resorts.  I think to myself, they actually ski up here.  We are in a ski area.  Of course they did not tell us it would be colder here, but we did by chance bring our windbreakers with us.  

Then catch glimpse of what looks like a castle...it actually is a castle.  

We are not in Europe, what could this be?  It looks old as part of the walls have tumbled down and it just has that "old" look to our highly trained archaeological eyes.  "Old" is very relative here.  A castle dating to the 13th century?  Nothing near old when you compare with where we were this morning at Dan.  Dan was ancient when Jesus was walking around Galilee.  This castle was built 13 centuries after Jesus.  I am hoping we will get to see this castle up close.

We do.  That actually is our destination.  We step off the bus into a hurricane of wind!  On goes the windbreaker which is kind of funny to think about when you are nearly blown off the ground by the force of the wind.  With this on, it is barely tolerable temperature wise with the wind chill making things challenging to be outside dressed as we are.  

We have a teaching here.  Without our little listening receivers that we are wearing around our necks, it would be impossible to have any idea of what is being said.  We are packed tight together to try to hear a little better and using the person behind us as additional windbreak.  I am on the back row.  Hmmm...is everyone using me as a windbreak?  Maybe I shouldn't eat so much schnitzel.

Anyway, back to the castle.  

The castle was built in the 13th century by the Muslim leader Saladim.  He was the one who put the kabosh on the Crusaders at the mountain with two peaks.  There are amazing peaked arches, the huge stones that fit together so perfectly in the walls, "slits" in the walls for the archers to defend the castle from attackers, it all amazes.  

Just how they would build on the steep mountain sides in a place like this is beyond comprehension.  Water?  

Food?  How would they sustain themselves? There is a very interesting archway with a steep staircase that goes downward.  

We are told that this passage way follows the ridge in front of the castle 9 miles underground and ends up at the Temple of Pan where we just were before lunch!  It was all chiseled out of stone!  I am beginning to think these ancient people were supermen.  How do they do this stuff?  How would they know where they were headed?  How do you chisel 9 miles of stone?  All before the internal combustion engine and electricity mind you.  The Temple of Pan is so directly below us, that if you were to roll a stone down the ridge for 9 miles, it would end up exactly there.  

The teaching is over.  Indiana Jolie and I eagerly ascend the hill up to the actual castle.  

We take pictures as there are lots of rocks here.  Must take pictures of rocks. There is a fascinating wall with Arabic writing that was also chiseled out of stone that explains who built the castle and for what reasons (to defeat the infidels) and what year it was.  

We begin to wander around. 

It is obvious that earthquakes and other natural forces are not kind to castles over the centuries.  The great stones that fit so flawlessly slip, tumble and

fall down into jumbled masses.  

I find a round tower at the corner and enter it.  Inside is so much different from the outside!  Inside the stone is smooth as if it has been polished, not weathered and rough like the outside.  It is beautiful. In the center of the small room is a hole down which descends a perfect spiral stone staircase.  I cannot resist.  I go down into the darkness.  My eyes adjust.  The only light that comes in is from the little archers slits.  I stand where an archer must have stood to defend the castle.  He must have been a lot shorter than I am because I am stooped over in the niche for the archer to stand.  

There is another spiral stone staircase in the middle of the floor.  I am on to something here.  It is even darker...hallways go in several directions.  I choose one and go. I am lost.  I have no idea how to get out.  I keep walking.  I faintly hear a strange noise.  They are honking the horn of the bus!  

I get the feeling it is all about me at this moment.  I choose another hallway and see daylight.  I enter the stable for the horses that was pointed out earlier.  I now know where I am, but have no idea how to get out.  

I walk faster.  I keep choosing arched doorways and walk down corridors. I see stairs, regular ones. I go up about three flights.  I break into the light of the day again.  I walk down the hill to the bus which is nearly full.  I am not the last one, almost, but not the last.

Once again we leave to return to Tiberas feeling like we did not have enough time to explore.  There were two areas of the castle and we had no time to even walk over to the further area. 

 It would have been amazing, but there is more yet to see.