Le Cinqième Jour, Samedi. (The fifth day, Saturday 5/21)

On Saturday, we went to Avdat, an ancient city. It was pretty cool to see all of the architecture and ruins, which were pretty well intact and explorable. Here are some general pictures from that adventure :)

Then we went to Arad, another excavation site. The whole city was kind of laid out in low lying walls, although they barely protruded at all up from there. Below is a shot from the temple, specifically the Holy of Holies. The two pillars right in front are idols, the bigger on the left representing Yahweh and the smaller on the right representing a female counterpart, probably Asherah. When the prophets called out the Israelites for following more than one god, it is likely that they were simply adding to Yahweh like this, rather than following completely other gods.