Twelve days, north to south.

Mediterranean Coast · Jezreel · Lower Galilee

Caesarea to the Sea of Galilee

Acts 10 · Acts 25–26 · 1 Kings 18

After a large Israeli breakfast buffet we visit Caesarea Maritima — the Roman capital of Israel for over 500 years. This was the city of Peter’s “Gentile Pentecost” and of Paul’s imprisonment. We sit in the same amphitheater where Paul was tried, then stroll through Caesarea’s Roman ruins. We visit Herod the Great’s palace — later Pilate’s palace — beside the Roman hippodrome on the Mediterranean Sea. From the coast we climb Carmel, cross the Valley of Jezreel, and come down to the lake for the night.

Sea of Galilee

The lake where the ministry happened

Matthew 4–9 · Mark 1–2 · John 6

A full day around a lake you can see across. The synagogue floor at Capernaum, the shoreline at Tabgha, the slope of the Mount of Beatitudes, the first-century harbour at Magdala, and the 2,000-year-old boat at Ginosar. We take a boat out on the water and read on it.

Golan Heights · Upper Galilee

Headwaters, high places and hard borders

Matthew 16:13–20 · 1 Kings 12 · Judges 18

North to the snow line. Banias — Caesarea Philippi — where Peter’s confession was made in front of a wall of pagan niches. The headwaters of the Jordan at Tel Dan, Jeroboam’s high place, the Crusader ruin at Nimrod, and the cliff city of Gamla. Yehuda’s “behind the curtain” day on the Middle East.

Decapolis · Lower Galilee

Roman streets and a Galilean village

1 Samuel 31 · Judges 7 · John 2

Bet She’an — Scythopolis — is the most complete Roman city in the Land, and the wall where Saul’s body was hung. Then Mt. Tabor, Cana, and a working reconstruction of first-century village life so the parables stop being abstract.

Jordan Valley · Jericho · Dead Sea

Down to the lowest place on earth

Joshua 6 · Matthew 3 · Luke 4

South through the Jordan Valley to the traditional baptismal site at Qasr al-Yahud, the tel at Jericho — the oldest walled town anywhere — the Mount of Temptation, and the caves at Qumran where the Dead Sea Scrolls came out of the ground. The day ends floating in the Dead Sea.

Masada · En Gedi · The Wilderness

Where the zealots and David both hid

1 Samuel 24 · Psalm 63 · Josephus, Wars VII

Cable car up Masada at first light for Herod’s northern palace and the Roman siege ramp. Then the waterfalls of En Gedi where David spared Saul, and the Judean wilderness that formed both Israel and the Gospels.

Negev · Beersheva · Timna

Abraham’s country and the Red Sea

Genesis 21 · Exodus 25–27 · Numbers 21

The patriarchs’ own ground. The four-horned altar at Tel Beersheva, the Nabatean city of Avdat on the spice road, and the full-scale Tabernacle model at Timna in the copper hills. We reach the Red Sea at Elat.

Petra Extension

The rose-red city of Edom

Obadiah · Genesis 36 · 2 Kings 14

The published guide carries a Petra extension. Through the Siq on foot to the Treasury, then the Nabatean tombs and the high place of sacrifice — Esau’s country, and the trade empire that controlled the incense road the Magi travelled.

Jerusalem · Mount of Olives

The first look at the city

Zechariah 14 · Luke 19 · Matthew 26

Up the Mount of Olives for the view every pilgrim remembers, then down the Palm Sunday road past Dominus Flevit to Gethsemane and its olive trees. Across the Kidron, past the tombs, and up to the Temple Mount overlook.

Jerusalem · The Old City

Inside the walls

John 5 · Luke 2 · Acts 2

The Southern Steps where Jesus taught, the Western Wall and its tunnels, the Pool of Bethesda, the Via Dolorosa, the Cardo and the Jewish Quarter. Yehuda reads the stones; Bob reads the text.

Jerusalem · City of David

Under the city and behind the glass

2 Kings 20 · John 9 · Isaiah 22

Down into Hezekiah’s Tunnel with the water still running through it, out at the Pool of Siloam, then the Israel Museum — the Shrine of the Book and the great model of Second Temple Jerusalem. The afternoon closes at Yad Vashem.

Bethlehem · Shephelah · The Garden Tomb

The last day, and the empty one

1 Samuel 17 · Luke 2 · John 20

Herodium and the Shepherds’ Fields, then west into the Shephelah — the Elah Valley where David picked up five stones. The tour ends at Gordon’s Calvary and the Garden Tomb, where we take communion together and read the resurrection accounts in the place they point to.