The Negev

We stopped at two tels in the Negev; the Tel of Beersheba and the Tel of Arad.  The Tel of Beersheba was our first stop.  Beersheba means the "well of oath" or the "well of seven."  There has been various scriptural accounts that have taken place here. Such as Abraham who dug a well at Beersheba, and tarred there for sometime during his life. You may have noticed in the Bible, during the time of the Judges, it uses the term "from Dan to Beersheba" when discussing distances.  Beersheba is located in the Negev which is used to explain the southern border of the Israelite territory.  
We went to the tel, basically a hill that has been excavated, and saw many remains of a city that was dated back to 900-700 B.C. It was most likely inhabited by government officials and used as a trading site.

My cute roommate, Jenessa.  She is so great!!

Reenactment of the city. I chose to be a guard. 

  It had a miraculous water system that was underground. We were able to walk through it.
 

A replica of an alter that was found there. 

At the  Tel of Arad, a small temple was found from the Israelite period. It was a Satellite temple( a temple away from Jerusalem.) They found many remains such as an altar, Holy of Holies, an outer courtyard,etc. However, it is believed that they were not doing things the right way, so either Hezekiah or Josiah "initiated religious reforms" and centralized altar worship to the temple in Jerusalem. 

The bottom of the wall is part of the real wall they found.