Flourishing Life

The Horns of Hattin

A nice kosher breakfast awaited us in the morning. Shortly afterward, our little group was off. Even before you leave the grounds of the kibbutz, the Horns of Hattin are visible as a pair of peaks that are opposite ends of a long dormant volcano. This area is famous as the last stand of the Crusaders in the Holy Land. Saladin lured the Crusaders out of Sepphoris and they marched the entire way in their armor, eventually running out of water in the summer heat. When they reached Saladin and his Muslim army at Hattin, they weren't in very good shape for fighting and they suffered an abysmal defeat. Hattin is also the traditional location of a battle fought by the Israelites, led by Joshua, when they were taking the Promised Land. Ruins of an ancient Israeli town are barely visible. Once we reached the top of the Horns of Hattin, we were afforded magnificent views of the surrounding area, including our destination for today, Arbel. Arbel is a large mountain on one side of the Arbel Valley. Jesus most certainly traveled down this valley to reach the Sea of Galilee on his way to Magdala and Capernaum.

Me on Hattin, Arbel in Background, Also the Sea of Galilee

Unfortunately, we took another detour when leaving Hattin, one of the unintended variety. We walked about a mile, or even more, before realizing we were on the wrong path. So, it was back up and over the Horns of Hattin a second time! Three busloads of school children were ascending Hattin at the time and it was funny to watch their teachers keeping them on task as many of them looked pretty disinterested in an ancient and medieval history lesson climb.

At the bottom of our descent on the other side of Hattin, we reached a road that leads to the Druze shrine Nebi Shu'eib, Bernd and Edith decided to take a short cut to Moshav Arbel and Bob and I continued on. We made a brief visit to the shrine, which supposedly is the tomb of Jethro, Moses' father-in-law. The Druze people venerate Jethro as the founder of monotheism. It's a nice shrine but it was practically empty. We ate our lunch and were quickly back on the trail, which at this point became the most pleasant part of the whole trail. It wound down through a valley, eventually the Arbel Valley. Most of the land is utilized for grazing cattle. It is a beautiful setting. This was one of those places one can say with near certainty that Jesus walked here.

Arbel Valley from Trail, Sea of Galilee Below

Eventually, the trail began a fairly steep and long ascent out of the valley up to the village of Moshav Arbel. As the trail rises higher, a beautiful view of the Arbel Valley opens up and you can see all the way down to the Sea of Galilee. It's truly wonderful. We stopped by the ruins of a fourth century synagogue and made our way to the guest house, run by the Shavit family. We were warmly welcomed and offered delicious and cold lemonade, which was most refreshing after the longest day of hiking thus far. Later in the evening they served a delicious homemade meal of chicken, potatoes, pickled beets and cabbage. My feet are definitely taking a beating, but overall, this is a very enjoyable experience, especially after the stunning scenery today.