Day 3 Tel Beersheba Thu 11/14/2019

TEL BEERSHEBA / EILAT / UNDERWATER OBSERVATORY / AQABA OVERNIGHT

Tel Be'er Sheva National Park, with ruins of an Israelite Kingdom fortified administrative city, located between the Be'er Sheva and Hebron streams. Genesis 26:33: "And he called it Sheba: therefore the name of the city is Beersheba unto this day." See Abraham's Well dedicated to Abraham who lived in Beersheba. The story in Genesis 21 tells of a well which Abraham dug and Abimelech's servants seized. Abraham gave seven ewe lambs to Abimelech as a witness that he dug the well himself (Gen. 21:28-30). Abimelech accepted the lambs and the two men swore an oath in the place, named Be'er Sheva (Gen. 21:31). We drive from Beersheba to Eilat to experience the marine life of the Red Sea. The Underwater Observatory Park of Eilat, is an attraction unique to the city of Eilat. People come from all over the world to see the spectacular coral reef. At the Underwater Observatory Park you can enjoy guided tours of the marine life including sharks, turtles and rare fish. We then cross the Eilat/Aqaba border into Jordan for dinner and overnight.

Our view from our hotel in Tel Aviv.
We will travel south today to Beer Sheva - where Abraham eventually would settle. 

Packing up the bus.
Each of the bags had to be pointed out by owner before it was packed away in the bus.

Our Opening Devotion:

The salvation story unfolds in Genesis 12:1-3. GOD chooses a man whose seed (Gen. 3:15) would bless the world through Jesus. Abraham - Isaac - Jacob/Israel

Pretty amazing geography on the way down to Beer - sheva.
Hard to capture, but this is just one pic of this section of land.

First stop: Abraham's Well

Very interesting presentation. Not what I expected...

Our guide inside gave us an introduction on the life of Abraham and what happened at the well.
See Genesis 21.

Here our guide shows the path Abraham took starting at UR of the Chaldeans (Babylon).

Here's our group receiving some last minute instructions before we are released for pictures and exploring.

There are 22 people in our group.
Can you find the 7 from Lord of Life? I mean, 6, because I'm taking the picture.

After Beer - sheva we headed south to the very southern tip of Israel.

To the east is Jordan and to the west is Egypt.

The Red Sea is south. The town is called Eilat.

On the way south we went through the NEGEV and the Wilderness of Zin.

Here's the map of the wilderness of Zin.

Here's a picture Nancy Gatfield took of the wilderness of Zin.

Next stop: The Underwater Observatory Marine Park

Before heading to Jordan for tomorrow's adventure we stopped here:

Here is our group getting ready to enter the Observatory Park.

Once inside there was a lot to see...

We stopped here to go below and to climb high to see all around.

What a fine looking group.
l.to r. Terry Kramer, Mary Kramer, Carol Koziol, Nancy Gatfield, Curt Berg, Cheryl Monzingo, Jan Berg

I could've gone crazy taking pictures down here.

Pretty stunning!

Length: 00:00:17 sec.

Impressed by the variety in the coral reef.

Last stop: Jordan Customs

Our final event today was going through customs on our way to Jordan.
Tomorrow is Jordan - Petra, Wadi Rum, and more.