<i>(Rhoda) Today we're going to visit
the recently excavated site</i> <i>of what is believed to be
the Cana of Galilee,</i> <i>the ancient town
where Jesus turned water into wine.</i> Just imagine a wedding here,
and you got six stone jars filled with water, <i>and Jesus turned them into wine.</i> <i>(Rhoda) Even though there's a modern
town by the name of Cana,</i> <i>and we have already
made an episode about it,</i> <i>we found out that this town
was identified as the biblical Cana</i> <i>only in the middle of the 17th century,</i> <i>and some historians believe
that this modern town was chosen</i> <i>because it had a good road that provided
easy access to the visiting pilgrims.</i> <i>So the Cana that we all know
and have been visiting for years</i> <i>might not even be
the Cana recorded in the Bible.</i> <i>And if this isn't the right place,</i> <i>then where is the original
Cana of Galilee?</i> <i>(Sergio) Apparently, there are five
proposed locations</i> <i>for being the true Cana.</i> <i>The first one is what we all thought
was the real place, this modern town.</i> <i>The second and the third places are not
that far off in the outskirts of the town.</i> <i>The fourth proposed location
is a very interesting site,</i> <i>located just a few miles north.</i> <i>And the last location, believe it or not,</i> <i>is all the way up in Lebanon.</i> <i>And even though each location
has intriguing evidence</i> <i>after days of research, Rhoda and I
got interested in Khirbet Qana,</i> <i>the site located
just a few miles north of Nazareth.</i> <i>What drew our attention here
is the recent archeological discoveries</i> <i>of a mysterious cave
where they found a Greek inscription</i> <i>that says "Lord Jesus",</i> <i>and in the same cave
they found Maltese crosses,</i> <i>even what seems to be a prayer altar,</i> <i>upon which they found two stone jars
with spaces for four more</i> <i>that would have sat there
to commemorate the miracle.</i> If this is the actual location,
and all evidence points that this is, <i>then we can just imagine
what this place looked like</i> <i>when Jesus turned water into wine.</i> - <i>(Rhoda) Babe!</i>
- <i>(Sergio) Yeah?</i> - <i>(Rhoda) There's a huge snake skin.</i>
- <i>(Sergio) No way!</i> - <i>(Sergio) Ah!
- (Rhoda) Oh, my gosh!</i> <i>(Sergio) So today we attempt to drive
to this uninhabited location,</i> <i>explore the site, and visit the very cave</i> <i>which is believed
to have served as a memorial</i> <i>to the first recorded miracle of Jesus.</i> <i>So we're heading to Khirbet Qana,</i> which is the location that's supposed to be
the real site of Cana of Galilee, where Jesus turned water into wine. And the location
is actually off main roads, and online I read that you can get to it with an SUV through a dirt road
if you get to Yodfat, <i>and after driving after a 2 mile dirt road
to get to Khirbet Qana,</i> there's no access to it from a main road, it's kind of hard to get,
you need to hike there or drive through the dirt roads,
so we're going to try to do that. <i>(Rhoda) Khirbet Qana is located
about seven miles north of Nazareth,</i> <i>and there are no paved roads
that lead up to the site.</i> <i>But we've read online
that we can get to it</i> <i>from the west side
via an unmarked dirt road.</i> (Sergio) Oh my! Wow! I don't know, they said that an SUV would be able to go through here. What do you think? I don't think we can go there, but-- This might need a jeep, not an SUV. (Rhoda) Oh! Come, come! Wow! (Rhoda) Look at this,
it looks like a river bead. I'm going to walk there and see. ♪ (music) ♪ So? So, it's not... there's no way
we're going to make it with an SUV. There is a large 4x4 car, that is having
difficulty to make it through the road, down, there it goes really steep down, and the rocks get bigger and bigger, so... we're going to try
to find another way there. Okay. We saw on the map, on a satellite picture, <i>that there is a road from up north,</i> <i>we're going to try that one,</i> <i>it looks like it could get us
really close to the very site</i> <i>and then we're not in danger of rain,</i> even if it rains, we can just go back
and hide in the car. So we're going to give it a try,
it's still a risk, but-- (Rhoda) Let's do it. So it looks like this is the entrance. It is very interesting,
now I'm going to follow these guys, they look like they're doing much better. So far this road looks a bit better
than the other roads, so we'll see. I got a few obstacles on the way, one is there's no rail on the side,
so we just can fly out the mountain; two, a little drizzle,
which hopefully will stop, but we'll keep on going and we'll see
how far we can get with this road. <i>(Rhoda) The north access road did not have
good driving conditions either,</i> <i>as it started getting too rocky
and muddy for our car to handle.</i> <i>So after thinking for a while</i> <i>we've decided
that the best way to get there,</i> <i>is to simply park the car
on the southeast side</i> <i>and just hike it up.</i> ♪ (music) ♪ So we tried to take
the dirt road for Khirbet Qana, but it's not going to work. We're going to drive around the mountain
and try to make it through the other side of Khirbet Qana, <i>there's another dirt road
that I haven't read about online,</i> <i>but looking at the satellite maps I saw it</i> and I think we could make it there
through the main road on the other side, from the south side
of Khirbet Qana mountain. ♪ (music) ♪ It looks like this is a much better road. That road was terrible,
so this looks like a much better option. ♪ (music) ♪ So this is it, I think... we're going to just park here
because we can't drive up, can't find our way around,
we're going to just hike up. We got to the closest point
possible to Khirbet Qana, which is right up the hill. We're going to hike up, let's go. - (Rhoda) Babe? It is raining.
- (Sergio) Yeah? Hum... it started raining. It's raining. The clouds don't look so good,
and it just rained on us. - Yeah.
- So... (laughter) After three hours of driving on rocks. East, west, north... (laughs) And now it rains... Ugh. (laughter) All this rain is too much risk,
even a little drizzle is too much risk, if it starts pouring, we don't want
to ruin our camera and equipment, we got to pack and go. (thunder) We're ready now to go to the place. It's the middle of July now, it shouldn't be muddy anymore. I think we're ready
to give it another attempt, and try to make it up that hill,
and look at the ancient caves. - Ready? Let's go!
- Let's go! ♪ (music) ♪ This is much much better
than last time, isn't it? Uhum, It's not wet. Yeah, everything's dried out, and it's kind of not as green
as it used to be, but is still beautiful. Look at it, it's the middle of July, - and there's still green grass.
- Yeah. Are you seing this? Because look at the soil, it's so good, - I think this is set for farming.
- Wow! I mean, we just park right here. - Just park right here.
- Yeah. I'm going to just go up a bit,
and reverse into it. Okay? <i>(Sergio) Yeah, perfect.</i> Alright. We're here. We're all set. And it's a great place to start,
because where we're going is right up the hill, towards Cana. ♪ (music) ♪ Last time we were here,
the danger was the mud but this time it's the middle of July, and we got snakes here and ticks. We got to constantly check-in ourselves, we got long sleeves
just in case once we get up, and also, long pants. Look at that, what is this? Just a fly. ♪ (music) ♪ <i>(Rhoda) Hey, you can see
Nazareth from here!</i> (Sergio) Wow, that's cool! This is that valley,
and your parents live at the edge of it. (Sergio) Wow! That is so cool!
That's Nazareth! If you would walk by foot, I mean, that's no that long. - You see it.
- Yeah, that's crazy. Do we go up this way or that way? Oh, that's a good question. Yeah, there is a path there, we can just keep going up. Let's do it. ♪ (music) ♪ The thorns are absolutely unbearable, it feels like somebody
is cutting us with a knife. Yeah, just scratching through. Oh my goodness, it's so painful. <i>(Rhoda) Do you know
how we tell visitors,</i> "If you can come and make it,
come and see it for yourself?" Do you know how we do that? (Sergio) Yeah. Don't come here. ♪ (music) ♪ I've kind of lost the trail though. Oh, I'm so tired. Oh man, we're finally here, we made it. And there it is,
I can see something there. There, look at that!
What is this? Is that a cave? ♪ (music) ♪ I actually see stairs, like steps. Actual steps that lead down. I mean, this is definitely
a place people lived in or did something. Take a look at the bottom,
you see the steps like a... (Rhoda) Yeah, there is a step. - Hey it goes deeper.
- It goes deep, yeah. <i>A few years ago,
Dr. Thomas McCollough and his team</i> <i>conducted an archeological dig
in this area,</i> <i>and at the end
of their first excavation season</i> <i>they accidentally discovered
a mysterious cave.</i> <i>In this cave they found multiple
important artifacts buried inside,</i> <i>such as a Greek graffiti
that reads "Kyrie Iesou",</i> <i>translated it means "Lord Jesus",</i> <i>they also found a prayer altar
with Maltese crosses carved on it,</i> <i>but more significantly, they found broken
remains of two stone jars</i> <i>with spaces for four more.</i> <i>These artifacts date
as far back as the 5th century,</i> <i>which means that even though they don't go
as far back as the time of Jesus,</i> <i>they still suggest
that this location was chosen</i> <i>by the Byzantine believers
in the 5th century</i> <i>to serve as the commemorative spot
where Jesus turned water into wine.</i> So we're seeing the cave right here, let's go an examine it,
but this is the one, it looks just like the pictures
we saw online. So... I'm putting
a long sleeve shirt because, I mean, you don't know what's in the cave, if there is a snake
or some kind of spider or centipede. I'm going to even keep my neck covered. Yeah, let's go and see. Gosh! Yeah. (Rhoda) Boy, there's a yellow jacket here. (Sergio) Yo, yo... (Rhoda) So, what do you see? (Sergio) Wow! Alright, it's not that deep and there is the end of it. And it's not the place we're looking for. (Rhoda) Okay. So this was probably
just a living place. (Sergio) A living place.
And there are the steps that I found, that we saw before here. Alright, I'm coming out. (Rhoda) Careful, careful.
There's a yellow jacket right at the door. Alright, so it looks like that's not
the cave that we're looking for, and we need to keep on looking for it. Everything is overgrown,
it's hard to find that specific cave, but we got to find it before it get's dark We got to keep going up I think, right? Yeah. Let's kee going up. ♪ (music) ♪ Look at the pottery shards! And some of them have lines. Look how big! Wow! <i>(Rhoda) While climbing
to the top of the hill,</i> <i>we realized how big
this town must have been</i> <i>as we keep finding pottery,
water cisterns, and many ruins</i> <i>that have been laying here
untouched for centuries.</i> Wow! Look at that pottery it has circles on it. I can see the circles
and the drawing on the pottery. (Sergio) We have never found anything
this size in any of the sites. This place is just a treasure chest
of archeology. Wow! (Rhoda) It looks like a mikveh
like a ceremonial bath, look, you got stairs, and it's plastered, and you've got stairs up. During Byzantine period,
once it became a Christian place this could have been
where people bathed in, yeah. But wait, if its a mikveh then
the synagogue has to be here. Yeah, maybe this was a synagogue. I think, at least it looks like one. <i>(Sergio) Besides the abundance
of archeological evidence on site,</i> <i>this location has also a strong
historical link for being the true Cana,</i> <i>as the early maps consistently
locate Cana to be north of Sepphoris.</i> <i>And it wasn't until the mid-17th century</i> <i>that this designation was changed,</i> <i>and the modern town of Cana
was chosen instead,</i> <i>because of its easy access.</i> <i>But the pilgrims of old came here,</i> <i>to this ground.</i> <i>So could it be that
this is the biblical Cana?</i> <i>The one mentioned in the Bible,</i> <i>the one where the wedding was held?</i> <i>If so, this would explain
why centuries later</i> <i>the Byzantines believers
made an adoration cave</i> <i>to commemorate the first
recorded miracle of Jesus.</i> <i>Wow! Yeah, I see it.</i> - (Rhoda) Do you see it?
- (Sergio) Yeah, I think that's it. - There it is!
- You found it? - There it is!
- Hold on, I'm coming. - This is it!
- You found it! Wow, this is it! Okay, let me put a long shirt on,
and I'm going in. (Rhoda) Okay, alright. (Sergio) Alright I'm going in. (Rhoda) Be careful, okay? Yeah, I've got the neck
covered and everything. (Rhoda) Be careful not to fall
because this has filled in, but you don't know
if it's filled in well. (Sergio) Yeah. (Rhoda) What do you see
through the hole? (Sergio) Oh my. It kind of collapsed. - (Rhoda) Oh no.
- (Sergio) Yeah. (Rhoda) The shape of it? (Sergio) It goes in. It goes in, but it collapsed. (Rhoda) I was hoping
we would be able to see the crosses and everything
they said they found. (Sergio) Yeah. - (Rhoda) Do you see?
- (Sergio) That's not it. (Rhoda) That's not it? (Sergio) No, this is not it,
there's nothing in here. (Rhoda) Oh, man. (Sergio) It's a bit disappointing,
because we really hoped to see the... the altar with the cross, but... (Rhoda) What a bummer. (Sergio) A bit sad that we couldn't
go down and see the actual altar with the cross from the 5th century, the encouraging part
is that we are in an ancient synagogue. This is a 1st century synagogue,
and then later converted into a church, <i>there's a baptismal place right there,</i> <i>and the mikveh, probably the 1st century,</i> and we can just imagine
what this place looked like when Jesus turned water into wine. <i>Even though this cave
is a very interesting one,</i> <i>specially that it is located
at what is believed</i> <i>to have been a synagogue
at the time of Jesus,</i> <i>unfortunately, this is not the cave
we were looking for.</i> ♪ (music) ♪ <i>(Sergio) So after coming home,
we've made a few phone calls</i> <i>and we were able to reach
Dr. Mordechai Aviam,</i> <i>who knows this area very well,</i> <i>as he was involved
in the excavations of this site.</i> Wonderful, thank you so much, bye bye. Okay, so I've got awesome news. Prof. Aviam said that he's digging somewhere not too far
from here near Mount Tabor, and he said that if we bring to him
the drone footages, and the maps, he'll be able to pin-point
the location of the cave. (Rhoda) That's awesome. Yes, so this is our chance. Yeah, let's go. ♪ (music) ♪ These are times when
we by law must wear masks, and Rhoda and I forgot our masks, so... we've made them from paper towels. Alright, so we're going
to look for Dr. Aviam. <i>So you're involved in the excavations
with Dr. McCollough at the Khirbet Qana?</i> Yes, I was involved since the beginning
of the excavations, I was digging there. If I show you the--
We got drone footages and also the map, would you be able
to pin-point where is at? - Where the cave is?
- Of course. (Dr. Aviam) It is located on the slope
towards the south, and when they finished excavating it,
they closed with a metal grill. (Sergio) Metal grill. <i>Prof. Aviam remembered that metal bars
were placed to block the entry to the cave</i> <i>and he also mentioned that this cave
was right under a fig tree.</i> <i>And by now the fig tree
would have grown so big</i> <i>that it would be impossible
to enter the cave.</i> There was a big tree growing
over the entrance, so maybe it would be impossible
to find it today. Oh, wow. But I can show you where it was. <i>(Sergio) But despite all the potential
obstacles we might find there,</i> <i>Prof. Aviam still showed us the exact area
where we should find the cave.</i> - Thank you so much again.
- A pleasure. - Thank you so much for your time.
- All the best. So what do you think? Are we going to go for a third time? I don't know. He said they had to cut
the fig tree to even get there. So even if we had time to go, probably we're not going to see it,
not going to find it. So I don't know.
Are we going to go? I don't know. ♪ (music) ♪ They say the third time is a charm. This is really exciting! I think we're actually
going to find it this time. Are you excited? ♪ (music) ♪ There's a few things
to be said about this hike, first of all: don't do it, it's thorny, it's dangerous, and if you don't listen to my advice
and you do do it, make sure you don't do it at noon. Right? No, just don't do it at all. At all. ♪ (music) ♪ Almost there. Prof. Aviam told us
to look for a fig tree, and on the satellite imagery he showed us that he saw two fig trees
that could potentially be the sites where the cave was discovered. There's one that has
a fig tree coming out of it. Yeah, that's look like it, let's check it out. ♪ (music) ♪ - This is it.
- This is it? I think it has those metal bars, metal. ♪ (music) ♪ This could be it.
I mean, it does look a lot like it. The only thing is, I see a little hole
under the rocks but not much. I didn't see a good entrance
that we would have seen in the picture. There's one more tree
that he told us to check out which could be the spot,
let's go take a look at that. (Rhoda) Okay. While Rhoda's checking out that tree,
I'm going to check that other fig tree just a little higher here over the step. - Did you find anything down there?
- No. Nothing. Okay, the spot she checked out is not it, maybe it's this one. - (Rhoda) Babe!
- (Sergio) Yeah? (Rhoda) Oh my gosh,
there's a huge snake skin. (Sergio) No way! Wait, what-- (Rhoda) Come close. I'm terrified. What did you find? Snake skin, a huge one, right here. I'm just terrified to be between
these rocks because snakes can hide here. (Sergio) I'll come down to you. - <i>(Sergio) Ah!
- (Rhoda) Oh my gosh!</i> (Sergio) I'm okay. (Rhoda) Can I help you get up? (Sergio) Yeah, I'm okay. (Rhoda) Did you trip? - (Sergio) Yeah.
- (Rhoda) Oh! (Sergio) It was one of these rocks
that just flipped over when I stepped on it, and I just went... this was under my face right here. Oh, the camera is broken. I'm okay, praise the Lord. It's just a camera, praise de Lord I'm-- somehow I fell and didn't brake
anything on my body, I don't know how. <i>(Rhoda) Despite the bruises,
Sergio still decided to examine</i> <i>the rest of the fig trees on the property,</i> <i>and to try to find the cave.</i> So it does look like
there's a cave inside, but it's overgrown, this could be it,
but there's no way we're going in. No, there isn't. (Sergio) Yeah, in this condition
is really hard to find... With all this growth, you wouldn't be able
to see these stones. Yeah. (Sergio) This could be it as well. Man, it's all overgrown. That's it. Back to the car. Thank you, Lord, for the protection, we're done with this place. Let's go home. <i>(Rhoda) Even though we didn't get to see
the inside of the pilgrims cave</i> <i>due to the overgrowth
and the collapsed rocks,</i> <i>we still got to see this place,</i> <i>a place which is the best candidate
for the Biblical Cana,</i> and we got to see it in its untouched form <i>so that we can now mentally picture</i> <i>what it would have looked like</i> <i>as we read the account of the miracle.</i> (Rhoda) Jesus would have been down there. - Right?
- (Sergio) Yeah. Wow! Can you believe
the view they had here? That is so beautiful. Just imagine a wedding here,
and you got six stone jars filled with water, and Jesus tuned them into wine. (Rhoda) And Nazareth is right there.
The mount of Jonah is right there. Like all these places that we passed by. - Wow!
- And the valley is just gorgeous. Incredible. <i>(Sergio) The greatest takeaway
from this adventure</i> <i>was being reminded
of how fragile our lives are,</i> <i>we were reminded to cherish
every moment we have with our loved ones</i> <i>because we don't even know
if we'll get to see them tomorrow.</i> ♪ (music) ♪ <i>(Sergio) And the greatest comfort we have</i> <i>is to know that even when that day comes,</i> <i>when we must retire our bodies,</i> <i>we will be welcome by our Lord Jesus,</i> <i>the Lord who turned water into wine,</i> <i>of whom the prophets
of the Bible wrote about,</i> <i>the Lord who shed his blood
on the cross for all humanity,</i> <i>so that those who believe
can have an everlasting life.</i> ♪ (music) ♪ Hi everyone! Wow!
Thank you so much for watching. We just-- we're so thankful that we get
to spend another day with each other, and we're thankful
that we get the privilege to share this adventure with you. We hope that it was a blessing to you,
and that you have enjoyed it, and we hope to see you next time. Yes. So, again, thank you for watching,
and the best is yet to come.
