Umm Qais at the City of Gadara

One of the amazing places we visited yesterday was Umm Qais. Umm Qais holds significant value because 1) when you are standing on high ground at this location, you can seem the Golan Heights as well as Israel. It is apart of a triangle, sort of speak.

and 2) (thank you wiki) A controversy exists regarding the site found in all three of the Synoptic Gospels, where Jesus healed the demoniacs and cast the demons into a herd of swine which ran into the sea of Galilee. The Gospel accounts record that Jesus, along with his disciples, stepped upon the shore and “immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man” possessed by demons named Legion (Mark 5:2). Jesus then spoke to the demons and demanded them to depart, sending them into a nearby “herd of many swine feeding there on the mountain” (Luke 8:32). The possessed pigs, “ran violently down the steep place into the sea” and “those who kept them fled and went away into the city” (Matt. 8:32-33). Based upon the Gospel accounts, the location of the miracle had to have a nearby port, tombs for the men to live in, an area for pigs to graze, a nearby city to which the men could flee, and most importantly, a steep bank for the herd to rush down.

the gecko arie caught! fast little bugger. but i really dug his feets so i had to show you. :)

arie and max being affectionate with the 'death weed.' this stuff had spikes from the devil himself and grew over 6, 7, 8, 9 feet tall. don't let the pretty purple flowers fool you. they hurt! (i have the scars to prove it.)


i realize this is a semi crappy shot, but to the right you can see the gold land, which is the Golan Heights and farrrr off into the distance on the left, you can catch a glimpse of Israel. (it wasn't the clearest day in the world so i couldn't capture it as well as i'd have liked to.)