Tourism Archives - Page 76 of 96

$100 Million for Biblical Tourism in Jerusalem

On the 45th anniversary of Jerusalem’s reunification, the Prime Minister’s cabinet approved spending nearly $100 million to develop sites in the city. The Jerusalem Post has limited details:

Tourism in Jerusalem dominated the agenda at the meeting, where the cabinet approved NIS 350 million over the next seven years to develop sites and infrastructure in the capital, with a focus on biblical tourism. Israel hosted 2.8 million foreign visitors in 2011.
Eighty percent of them visited Jerusalem and 30% stayed at least one night in the city.
According to the Prime Minister’s Office, every million tourists add NIS 5.5 billion to the economy and create 30,500 jobs.
Approximately NIS 20m. of the tourism funding will be directed toward the Mount of Olives Cemetery.
The plan is to renovate 15,000 graves and install 150 security cameras to stop desecration and stoning attacks.
Part of the money will also go to improve the “green lung” of Jerusalem’s parks and open spaces.
The money will be used to develop the Slopes of Mount Scopus national park, next to the Arab neighborhood of Isawiya, which residents oppose because it will stop their neighborhood from expanding.
Netanyahu tasked the Jerusalem Development Authority with overseeing the development of biblical tourism sites. “[The money] will enable us to build biblical sites in the city that will enhance and explain our link to the land of the Bible, to Zion, and also allow millions of people, no less, millions of people to have a direct appreciation of Israel’s heritage as it finds expression in the Bible,” Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting.

The full story is here.

Cemetery on Mount of Olives (source)

Tagged Jerusalem, Tourism

Lack of Shade Lamented at Western Wall

Relief from the afternoon sun is not in sight at the Western Wall prayer plaza because of a rabbinic decree that forbids anything that will overshadow the Wall. From Haaretz:

It was a beautiful, partially cloudy spring day in Jerusalem on Tuesday, with temperatures reaching 25 degrees Celsius in the shade. A perfect day for strolling around nearly any part of the city, with one truly glaring exception: the Western Wall Plaza. The glaring whiteness of the plaza pavement reflected the heat, and the complete absence of trees, buildings and pergolas ensured that there was not a speck of shade. The result is an almost unbearable experience for worshipers and tourists who congregate at Judaism’s holiest site. The situation will only become worse with the arrival of summer.
[…]
“I was at a bar mitzvah on the eve of Passover, which isn’t yet summer, and people said it was impossible to concentrate on the prayers,” recalls Ofer Cohen, chairman of an NGO, called the Lobby for Jewish Values. “Anyone who prays when it is hot has to finish the prayer quickly – it isn’t praying with a focused mind,” says Cohen, who has asked the ministers of tourism and religious affairs to try to solve the problem.
Tour guides are also irked by the harsh conditions at the plaza.
“The problem exists all year around, both in the rain and in the sun,” says Jerusalem guide Ben Lev Kadesh. “In this whole huge space there isn’t a single covered corner. Many of the tourists come from Europe and it isn’t easy for them to stand in the sun.”
[…]
Indeed all ideas for providing some kind of cover or shade in parts of the plaza have been rejected. The problem has been under discussion for decades, say officials in Rabinovitch’s office. “There have been discussions about how to deal with heat in summer and rain in winter. But most people from the areas of planning, history and archaeology have felt strongly that for the sake of the Wall’s splendor, glory, and the memory of the past, the Western Wall should be revealed without means of shading,” say the officials.

The full article is here.

Western Wall prayer plaza in afternoon sun (source)

Tagged Jerusalem, Temple Mount, Tourism

Wednesday Roundup

In an article published in the new issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Emile Puech’s view of the Qeiyafa Ostracon is summarized. He believes that it “announces the installation of a centralized royal administration and it makes this announcement to a distant frontier province. He concedes that it is difficult to establish with certainty whether the new royal administration is that of Saul or David. On balance, however, he concludes that, most likely, the ostracon refers to Saul’s accession.”

Gordon Franz discusses three possible locations for the temple to Augustus near Panias/Caesarea Philippi. He concludes that the site of Omrit is likely the backdrop for Peter’s confession.

Using satellite images taken over a span of 40 years, Shmuel Browns shows how the Dead Sea is shrinking.

The first quarter of 2012 saw a record number of tourists to Israel.

The Israel Nature and Parks Authority says that if visitors pay they are less likely to trash a site.
Aren Maeir has announced a major scholarship for those wishing to join the excavations at Gath and/or Tel Burna this summer. The application deadline is May 6.

HT: BibleX

Roman temple at Omrit

Tagged Dead Sea, Galilee, Opportunities, Philistines, Tourism

Wednesday Roundup

Shmuel Browns shares some photos from his recent hike of Nahal Darga, which he calls “Israel’s most extreme and challenging” hike.

BAS: “Named by The Sunday Times as one of the world’s top ten walks, the Lycian Way hiking trail weaves along 300 miles of Turkey’s southern coastline through hundreds of archaeological sites.”

Leen Ritmeyer has word of an expansion to the Davidson Center in the excavations south of the Temple Mount.

The audio files are now online for Bryant Wood’s recent lecture series on “Archaeology and the Conquest: New Evidence on an Old Problem.”

Wayne Stiles: “Passover and Easter bring to mind pictures of the Messiah—both for Jews and for Christians. The Mount of Olives echoes these hopes from its slopes.”

The Washington Post reports on a battle in Israel to save the ancient Canaan dog.

Israel’s Supreme Court rejected a left-wing petition against the City of David Archaeological Park.

The article notes that “the City of David site receives around 450,000 visitors a year, up from 2,000 in 2001.”

Craig Evans writes about the Archaeological Evidence for Jesus. The accompanying photos are disappointing.

The Elvis Presley® Holy Land Tour is now taking sign-ups. In addition to stops at the Sea of Galilee and Western Wall, the tour will stop at the “infamous Elvis Inn Restaurant in Abu Ghosh – an Elvis-
themed diner and souvenir shop popular with tourists from around the world.”

HT: Joseph Lauer

Tagged Jerusalem, Tourism, Turkey

Weekend Roundup

Using satellite images, a researcher has identified potentially 9,000 new sites in northeastern Syria.

“With these computer science techniques, however, we can immediately come up with an enormous map which is methodologically very interesting, but which also shows the staggering amount of human occupation over the last 7,000 or 8,000 years.”

The Jezreel Expedition “just released three-dimensional LiDAR models detailing the site’s architecture and ancient landscape taken from recently collected LiDAR data.”

The spring season at Tel Burna has ended.

A writer for the Detroit Free Press describes one day on a dig at Khirbet Qeiyafa.

A New York Times article describes problems facing archaeologists returning to Iraqi sites.

Travelujah tells the “beautiful and tragic” story of Naharayim and Peace Island.

Joe Yudin visits Chorazin this week.

The Winter 2012 issue of DigSight is now online (pdf). Topics include: The “Jesus Family Tomb”
Revisited, The Oldest Egyptian Reference to Israel?, Recent Sightings, and Upcoming Events.

James Tabor: “Discovery TV has confirmed that the one hour special titled ‘The Resurrection Tomb’
will air on Thursday, April 5th, at 10pm EST.”

Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus, the previous work by Lois Tverberg and co-author Ann Spangler, is
available for $3.99 for Kindle for a few more days.

HT: ANE-2, Joseph Lauer, Jack Sasson

Chorazin from the west

Tagged Excavations, Galilee, Jezreel Valley, Syria, Tourism, Weekend Roundup

Questions and Answers at Neot Kedumim

An article in Haaretz gives a little history and suggests a few reasons to put Neot Kedumim on your list of places to go.

Why for example, one might wonder, did that forefather of all forefathers Abraham camp under the “oak of Moreh” when he, Sarah and their nephew Lot first came to this land? Is there significance to the oak? A deeper story behind the simple tale?
Have you always wanted to know why the children of Israel used the hyssop plant to brush paint on their doorposts when leaving Egypt? Or maybe you are one of those ancient history buffs more interested in why the Roman soldiers used the very same hyssop – dipped in vinegar – to quench Jesus’ thirst when he was on the cross?
And where on earth could one look for the answers to such questions?
Look no further than magical Neot Kedumim, Israel’s biblical landscape reserve, where the physical setting of the bible has been recreated on 625 acres teeming with everything from the majestic cedar of Lebanon to the scrappy hyssop bush.
[…]
One can rest in the shade of a willow around “Solomon’s Pool,” traipse around “Jotham’s Garden”, draw water from an ancient cistern, and then stop for a biblical themed lunch (which needs to be organized in advance) at “Abraham’s Tent.” Don’t expect tomatoes in your salad here, or any eggplant dishes, or, for that matter, any food not around when Rachel and Rebecca were in the kitchen. Sorry kiwi enthusiasts. And no surprise here: the restaurant is kosher.
Depending on the season, other activities offered at Neot Kedumim might include harvesting grain on a threshing floor, plowing and sowing a field, and plucking olives or operating an authentic olive press. Some activities such as shepherding, learn to write like Torah scribe and parchment preparation, and tree planting involve extra charges.

The full article is here. We recommended a visit several months ago. If you would like answers to some of the questions in the article but can’t wait for a visit, the books produced by Neot Kedumim (listed here) are the place to start.

“Solomon’s Pool” at Neot Kedumim

Tagged Tourism