Via Maris

for the because we are here for him to try to preserve the the eucharist present christ in gaza because gaza is a part of the holy land the our church names belongs to the latin patriarchy is the holy family church it's not a the good names is because according the tradition when the Holy Family church, when the Holy Family flew from Bethlehem to Egypt, they flew to Egypt through Gaza.

They took the Via Maris, the way of the sea, the way of Gaza.

And for this reason, this church brings this holy name.

And so we try to preserve the The Christ presence in Gaza, the Christian presence in Gaza, even if now the presence is very, very simple presence, but it's very important for the many works that the church would.

Some of them are 100 meters deep.

It's very difficult to to dig it's very difficult to reinforce uh but they knew how to do it and plus a lot of the relatives of the palestinian refugees in gaza were on sinai across the border in in egypt And the traditional trading routes in this zone come from the area of the Nile and what's called the Via Maris, the coastal route into Palestine.

And Palestinian refugees in Gaza are connected to clan or tribal and family members on the other side of the border in Egypt.

through the tunnels the tunnels where began like something like a social network now we think about social network in a digital sense but actually digging through the subsoil you want to emerge in a basement off or in a property off or near the property of somebody that you know and that you trust and bypass those that you think might be informers or that you don't trust so obviously The shape of the network was like a social network.

A famous pharaoh of Egypt said, he who holds Megiddo holds a thousand cities.

It's located right at a pass along the Via Maris that goes along the Mediterranean Sea into the vast Jezreel Valley.

And it's very strategic and has been for many, many years.

And we'll be strategic, obviously, in the end days because it's Megiddo from which we get the term Armageddon.

Right.

In the later Roman era, people called this the Via Maris, you know, the Way of the Sea.

Oh, I've heard of that.

Yeah.

Exactly.

Okay, wait.

He spares them from the garrisons on the Via Maris only to intentionally trap them between an ocean and Pharaoh's pursuing army a few chapters later?

Yes, he does.

And they say that one of the main reasons why people take nations take over land is either the natural resources on that land or trade.

If you controlled the trade routes like the ancient Via Maris or the King's Highway, it meant huge amount of money and power.

And

isn't that really what's going on right now in the Middle East? Absolutely.

And the Assyrians have apparently recruited the help of the Egyptians in trying to fight the Babylonians.

So Necho, Pharaoh Necho of Egypt, is going to probably, he's taking the route that today we call the Via Maris, the way of the sea.

He's probably leaving Egypt and going the area of Goshen, and he's hugging the Mediterranean coast.

So he's coming through Israel, and he's going up to the border of Turkey and Syria to this place called Karkemish, where he's going to engage in battle with the Assyrians against the Babylonians.

And so the Egyptians pieced together this big highway.

So if you're thinking of the Via Maris, From the Hellenistic Age, it's not that.

That's along the coast.

So they could have a lovely sea breeze as they march around here.