The first stop was Tel Tsafit, which has been identified as the ancient city of Gat. This was a really cool site, it's one of the five Phillistine cities in Israel. The rest of which are much closer to the coast. In Modern times, the city was inhabited by a Palestinian village prior to 1948. When they left, their stone houses were still intact. A wonderful example of how history quite literally builds upon itself.
In 2005, archaeologists discovered a shard with writing on it with letters similar to those that make up "goliath". While this does not absolutely prove the existence of Goliath, archaeolgists hypothesize that Goliath lived in Gat.
This picture is a view of Gat from the top of Tel Tzafit. For more information, check out Tel Tzafit's wiki site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gath_(city)
This is Tel Lachish which was most recently excavated only a few weeks ago. It doesn't look like much from this shot, but that hill is several layers of important history! pretty cool for a nerd like me.
This is the entrance gate to the city of Lachish. I have to admit, a lot of times when we visit these sites, it all looks like just a pile of rocks to me. Tel Lachish was the first place it "clicked" for me. With just a little bit of imagination, I felt like I was standing in this ancient city. I walked up the pathway that its citizens walked on, I stood in the houses that they lived in, I hiked the summit to their meeting places.
In the distance in this picture is one of the lookout towers at Lachish. in the foreground is 1 of three guard posts right inside the gates. (don't quote me on that...it was a long day in the sun, but I'm pretty sure that's what they were). An interesting fact about the Lachish excavation: the archaeologist only excavated half of these guard posts- he left the rest for future generations of archaeologists who will undoubtedly have better tools and testing techniques. How cool is that!
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