Road to Bethlehem: Death of a King

Note: This is a virtual journey along a variation of the Nativity Trail. I'm matching my daily walking distances with Google Maps and exploring the areas nearby. You can learn more about the Nativity Trail at www.sirajcenter.org  

I've made it 36 km away from Nazareth to a small town called Beth Shean. This town sits at the junction of the Jezreel Valley (through which we've been travelling) and the Jordan River Valley. It's here that we begin to follow south between the river to the east and the hills to the west.

The biblical significance of the town is that during the battle at nearby Mount Gilboa, King Saul committed suicide rather than be captured. The Philistines then cut off his head and displayed his body (along with Saul's sons) on the wall of the city. You can read the story in 1 Samuel chapter 31. Later, the city is listed as part of Solomon's kingdom in 1 Kings 4:12.

There is another national park here that protects the Roman and Byzantium ruins of the city. It appears that they still use the Roman amphitheater for audio/video presentations of the archaeological discoveries. However there is not a campground and given my slow pace, I imagine that Mary and Joseph only refueled here, probably camping farther down the road.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons contributors, "File:Elie Marcuse saul.jpg," Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Elie_Marcuse_saul.jpg&oldid=286434196 (accessed December 18, 2019).