Israel Mystery Photo #3

Israel Mystery Photo
Where was this photo taken?

Okay, so first a little update on this ongoing series…

I realized that with the comments visible it made it a bit less challenging after people answered before you. So I have changed things and will now hold the comments you leave, and then the following week I will publish them all when I release the answers. I hope that will make this more fun for everyone!

That being said, I think this one might be a drop more challenging, even for those people in my tour guide course. We’ll see!

Regarding last week, yeah, most people who responded got the right answer: the Cave of John the Baptist in the valley below Kibbutz Tzoba. So what’s the story with this site?

The cave includes a carved, foot-sized hole and a channel, associated with anointing the foot with oil. There are also some interesting drawings on the (man-made) cave/cistern’s wall that suggest crosses and anchors (boats being early Christian symbols). The location is not ridiculously far from Ein Karem, Jerusalem, which has previously been associated with John the Baptist’s birthplace. Taking all of these things together, it has been speculated that this was the cave that John the Baptist meditated and performed baptisms in.

The truth is that this conclusion is fairly dubious and the connection rather tenuous. Here is a response (from a Christian-oriented site, by the way). Still, there is some interesting archaeology in the site, and I won’t tell you that it is definitely not John the Baptist’s cave! You can decide that for yourselves.

Looking forward to this coming week’s responses!

9 thoughts on “Israel Mystery Photo #3

  1. Shai Applbaum says:

    There’s a monument like that in Majdal Shams; not sure if that’s the one, but it’s certainly similar!

  2. Warren says:

    The name on the awning of the makolet can be read if the photo is full-sized, and Googling ???? ???? shows that it’s in ??????

  3. Benny P says:

    That’s the statue of Sultan Pashah al Atrash, Druze leader during the Franco-Syrian War. It’s in a square in Pekiin. He holds in his hand the Druze five colour flag. Some have said the five colours represent the 5 prophets adam moses jethro jesus mohammad.

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