Saturday, July 24, 2010

Bible Walks Website

Bible Walks is a guide to archaeological and historical locations in the Holy Land. It includes descriptions, maps, and photographs of hundreds of sites. Many of these sites are well-known, and attract thousands of tourists every year. But if you are looking for "off the beaten path" less-visited locations, you can find many of these here as well.

Some of the locations are identified from uncertain traditions, and therefore may not be the real original sites mentioned in the bible. These include Mary's Well, the Mount of Beatitudes, Job's Spring, Armageddon, the Via Dolorosa, the Holy Sepulcher, and the site of the Last Supper. For example the Via Dolorosa is a supposed path to the site where Jesus was crucified at Golgotha. But in fact the real location of Golgotha itself is uncertain.

One interesting but less-visited location is Mar Saba, a Greek Orthodox monastery in the Judean desert that was built built during the fifth century. It was here that a portion of a letter describing the Secret Gospel of Mark was discovered. There could be other valuable ancient manuscripts and artwork here, but unfortunately there are tight restrictions on public access.

To visit this website, go to Bible Walks. You could spend many hours looking at the maps and photographs.