Part 6: archeology, art and abstracts

So we had our first day off since being here.  What better way to spend it then exploring the Israel museum.  Now maybe you think museums are boring, and thats okay, but this museum is FANTASTIC.  Right now I would consider rating it higher than the British Museum (which is also fantastic by the way).  Out of 10 I would give it a 39.6571 (I know--thats a high number).

For those of you who don't know the Israel museum houses the famous Shrine of the Book which is the home of the Dead Sea Scrolls.  And for those of you who don't know, the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1946 is one of, if not the, greatest modern archeological finds.  The Scrolls are the oldest manuscripts (minus two very tiny ones that are dated 400 years earlier) of the Bible, containig the majority of the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament).  We looked at these and some other artifacts, and an enormous model of Jerusalem from the Second Temple Period.  This brings us to lunch...I know we LOVE LOVE museums. 

By lunch time a little over half of our group was done with the museum, however there were a few of us who like to read every single litte thing who needed more time.  So we parted ways.  I travelled with three fellow museum geeks (Erv, Garett, and Dave).  Words cannot even begin to describe all that we saw and read.  Everything from arrows of the stone age, to paintings from the era of the crusades, to the rise of Islam.  It was fascinating.  Unfortunatly this museum requires about 6 years to get through :) and we had to keep moving.  Around 3 in the afternoon we had made it through the stone age all the way to the rise of Islam. 

By this time we were tired, our feet hurt from standing all day, however I cannot stand to go into a museum that contains art and leave not having seen it.  The guys did not share this opinnion but agreed to grant me a few minutes.  Right away I fell in love with all the textiles and calligraphy, the scroll containers were unbelievably beautiful.  Much to my joy and the boys disgust we found ourselves in the art section...here we discovered picasso, artifacts from Papua New Guinea...eventually we made our way out of the maze, feeling like we needed at least 6 more days to see it...

On our way home we stopped and went up the YMCA tower which gave us a view from 6 million feet straight into the side of the king david hotel. Actually we could see quite a few awesome things. 

Anyway tomorrow is our first exam, then we have a lecture, and a free afternoon which will most probably be spent visiting the upper room.
Lots of Love Team