After leaving Samaria, we went to Mt Gerizim which was also quite beautiful, but cold as you see. The archaeology was less interesting to me than meeting the son of the chief priest, but Karen Britt, who took this photo was excited to see this octagonal church. Gerizim is the home of the Samaritain sect of Judaism and they carry out a number of practices that are no longer undertaken in the modern religion. Among these is that each Passover they slaughter a bunch of sheep and cook them in fire pits. Seeing the place where they did this was very interesting. Although the facilities were modern, they reminded me a lot of what one sees in 13th c. Cyprus. Earlier this week I spent 2 relaxing days at the Dead Sea with a friend I went to school with at UCLA, who now teaches at Beer Sheva University.
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