Elijah’s Springs: Attempt 2 and Success!

Dear Friends,

This past Monday, I went off to attempt to find Elijah’s Spring again. This time, rather than trying to get down to it from the top of the wadi, I decided to hike up from the bottom of the wadi. And, rather than walking to the wadi on the hot humid day, I took a bus.

This is what the buses in Israel look like…similar to the rest of the world.

Rather than using Google Maps which led me so unsuccessfully last time, I used Moovit, which I think is only for transportation around Israel. Anyway, Moovit took me up this road:

The road got progressively sketchier:

Until it became a trail:

Above me I saw the mosque I went by last time, so I knew I was in the right wadi.

There are the ever-visible minarets.

This has seen better years…

This scene looked so Mediterranean that I could not not take a picture.

I went past the stairs down that I hadn’t been able to find before:

Lest you think that this is the lonely wilderness, I feel compelled to inform you that there were several families splashing around in the streams (springs?) that were running down the wadi. Elijah would have had to go elsewhere to be alone if he lived nowadays.

There were people on the other side of those bushes, but I didn’t want to be a creep and take their picture.

There was also a gardener weed-whacking in what I think was an abandoned pool complex among those palm trees.

Past all these people though, I found Elijah’s spring!

The first church built by the Carmelites who lived in the wadi as hermits in imitation of the Prophet Elijah.

However, there were a bunch of guys swimming in the spring and smoking hukkah…so I only took pictures of the ruined church. Then I hiked up a bit out of sight and read 1 Kings 17:1–7 which I think is the passage where Elijah was in this spot.

I saw this cave from above on my first attempt.

This lizard was very skeptical about me.

After an awkward exchange with an old Jewish guy whose English was only marginally better than my Hebrew, I hiked back down the wadi past the hukkah smokers, the families in the springs, the gardener, and others. By the time I made it back to my apartment I was sweatier than I’ve ever been in my life, but this was mostly from waiting at the bus stop, in the actual wadi there was a nice breeze the whole way.

Pray for us, Prophet Elijah!

Pax, Friends!

DS