I was gratified to indirectly receive news of Colonel Gihon through the article on his efforts on behalf of the amateur astronomers.
The three weeks that I spent in December 1969 as a volunteer on his excavation of a Roman fort overlooking the Dead Sea were among the most wonderful in my life.
This in no small measure was due to him. We had one day off and on that day anyone who wanted could join him on a late morning tour of the surrounding desert. After packing our lunches of hard boiled eggs and unpeeled small cucumbers we`d load into the truck. We`d stop in the middle of nowhere and he`d fascinate us with a recitation of what had happened in that spot 2000 year earlier. Then he`d take us somewhere else equally nondescript and do the same. Eventually a car would appear from nowhere at a pre-arranged non-descript place and he`d go back to Tel Aviv (I think he had to teach at the university Sunday morning) and we returned to the youth hostel where we were put up. |
|
