Tel Dor

We visited Tel Dor this morning. It's on the coast 30KM south of Haifa (google map here). Tel Dor was a working port from the Middle Bronze Age (around 2000 BCE) through to Crusader times. Excavations have been going on since the 1920s till today. Last season The Hebrew University ran a dig, there is a good website with Dor's history and its occupation by the Canaanites, the 'Sea Peoples' (very interesting bunch of pirates believed partly responsible for the fall of Bronze Age civilizations in the area), the Israelites, Phoenicians, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks and Romans. Pretty standard for the area.

We were both very surprised by what an excellent site it was. Overlooking the sea, on the headland, it's very pretty. There was tonnes of wildlife in the area, and I have devoted some pictures to the living this time. This is well recommended, it is not far.
The usual shadow picture, this time over the shallow rock pools. I forgot my hat in the car, luckily it was not too hot.
We took our coffee makings with us and found a bit of an old temple overlooking the sea where the boy did his stuff.
This is what a lot of the site looks like. Huge blocks of stone all piled nicely one onto of the other.
You can see the stratigraphy in this eroded cliff face. The layers of civilization are visible. All those orange bits are pieces of pottery. There is tons on tons of sherds laying all over the place.
Having a site that overlooks the sea is always nice. I think this is one place I would like to dig in the 2010 season.
It's a big site with ruins all over the headland. We climbed up and down. Bso noted that it's far better than Caesarea because you can climb over the ruins and nothing is fenced off, except where they were excavating last season.
I liked the way this pathway had been cut into the 'living' rock. There was a large camber through the hole on the right hand side. We were not sure what it could be used for, perhaps storage. It was far too near the sea to be a water cistern.

The Wildlife
We parked near these wetlands. There were thousands of birds of all shapes and sizes. There were quite a few bird watchers out, it seems that these wetlands are used by birds on their migrations north and south.
These little fish were visible once you stood very quietly on the bank of one of the wetland pools. One movement and they disappeared in a flash.
Please click to enlarge this picture above and see the unbelievable camouflage of this chameleon. This picture is for Michael who is cursed to never see a chameleon because of a cosmic punishment having to do with a sick chameleon and a freezer.
I have no idea what kind of bird this is, but I would guess it's a kingfisher, but I'm probably wrong.
I have no idea what this is and any help would be appreciated. As we were driving out on the very bumpy and rough road, two of these guys scurried out of the bushes next to us and took off up the road. They looked pretty mean, what are they?

Well that was our morning. Definitely worth checking out, just look at the google map I posted on the top of the page. It's Yom Kippur already, we have eaten our fast meal. A house alarm is going off down the road and will probably keep us up all night. A 'good signing' folks.