Eli overlooking valley of Tekoa

Hiking the Valley of Amos (Tekoa)

My husband is an outdoorsman.  He loves exploring nature, hiking, etc.  When I met him he was into hiking, rock climbing, and all those other adventure sports…  So, naturally, I got into them.  Now that we have kids, we still try to find ways to do these sorts of things.  The kids LOVE it.

Again, we live in Beit Sahour, part of the Bethlehem district, in Palestine.  There are very few parks and places to take kids to play in our town.  We have found other ways to get our kids out and hopefully foster a love for nature and the outdoors.  Just to the east of us is the Judean Desert… great for hiking, rock climbing, rappelling and a number of other things.

History…

We decided to take the kids for a day hike in the beautiful Wadi Acratun (otherwise known as the Valley of Tekoa or the Valley of

The Herodian

The Herodian as seen from our hike.

Amos or the Valley of Berachah or Valley of Blessing).  Things here have several names… the Hebrew or biblical name, the Arabic name and possibly even a local name.  This valley lies in the shadow of the Herodian.  The Herodian is approx. 8 miles south of Jeruslaem on a hill shaped like a truncated cone that rises 758 m. above sea level.  The palace-fortress was built by King Herod around 40 B.C. It had a breathtaking view, overlooking the Judean Desert and the mountains of Jordan to the east, and the Judean Hills to the west.

Wadi Acratun, otherwise know as the Valley of Tekoa, is where the prophet Amos hails from.  Coincidentally, I am currently reading the book of Amos and I just found out that Amos was a shepherd in the town of Tekoa and took care of sycamore-fig trees.  He said the Lord took him from shepherding to be one of his prophets to Israel.

The Hike…

Tekoa road sign

Signage

We hiked in the Spring when the rains were almost finished and the dessert was green, green, green.  The hike started in a small forest area off the bypass road between the Israeli settlement of Tekoa and the Arab village of Teko’a.  It was like walking in an enchanted wonderland.  (By May it would all be brown again.)  I carried our youngest.  My husband carried our two year old. and our 4 and 7 year old walked.

They loved it.  Our goal was a huge natural rock formation that resembled an amphitheather.  The trail winds along a wadi.  A wadi is a valley that is dry except in the rainy season.  We made it to the amphitheater, had a picnic lunch and headed back.  Along the way we encountered herds of sheep, young shepherds and I found a well on the side of the wadi where shepherds watered their flocks when water was scarce.  Next to the well was a large rock carved like a bowl to hold water.  It was incredible.  Made me more understand the imagery of the shepherd caring for his flocks that you read all throughout the Bible.

These are the things that your children remember… take advantage of what the world around you has to offer!  They can be amazing teaching tools of both history, religion, science and nature… don’t ever stop exploring!

Following the leader

Following the leader…

Wild sage and poppies

Wild sage and poppies.

Monastic cells

Monastic cells created by Byzantine monks found along the wadi.

Nature's natural amitheater

Nature’s natural ampitheater… and where we were headed for a delightful picnic!

A well

I found a well built along the wadi. Shepherd’s use it all year long to water their flocks!

Grazing sheep along the wadi

Grazing sheep along the wadi

Erich carrying Yasmin

Loaded down…

Tunnel

Through the rock tunnel.