'And it will be, when the Lord, your God, will bring you to the land to which you come, to possess it, that you shall place those blessing upon Mount Gerizim, and those cursing upon Mount Ebal (Deuteronomy 11:29)'
For thousands of years, from Biblical times until fairly recently, Israel has hosted some of the most exotic animals in the world, worthy of any safari!
'And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel had brought up out of Egypt, they buried in Shechem, in the parcel of ground which Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem'
'And the word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying: Take the girdle that you bought and rise, go to Prat (Spring) and hide it there in the cleft of a rock (Jeremiah 13.3)'
The earth covering the courtyard contained some large building stones, some of which are elaborate architectural elements associated with the 2nd Temple period.