Tourism Archives - Page 86 of 95

Humorous Signs

Over the years, I’ve collected photographs of interesting signs posted in Israel and other places. One day I’d like to create a collection, as some sets could be helpful for adding color in teaching. I’ve found on signs the names of most of ancient Israel’s judges, many of its kings, as well as various biblical events. In countries where English is used on the signs but is not the native language, you are more likely to find errors. Below are a few that may not be of any use for teaching, but are interesting for other reasons.

I have to wonder how the wording on this sign came to be.

This one gets my attention.

One day I am going to try to sneak in a picture of my wife and I celebrating our fifteenth anniversary.

At least it’s not the Academy of the English Language.

Tagged Tourism

A Hike Through Galilee

Most tourists see Israel through a bus window. The advantages of modern transportation are obvious, but the drawbacks are more apparent after a day on the trail. Some trips incorporate a small amount of walking, but time factors often preclude a half-day, a full day, or more seeing the land as Abraham and David did. In my experience, the land “looks different” when your legs are aching and your canteen is getting low.

Israel is crisscrossed with many well-marked trails, but various logistical challenges prevent most tourists from ever enjoying them. The short-term visitor to Israel may have difficulty finding a hiking map (especially in English) and determining a safe and appropriate route.

A new opportunity now exists which eliminates a number of these hurdles. The “Jesus Trail” provides a convenient path through a beautiful and historically significant area. While I wish that the developers had chosen a different name (such as the “Nazareth to Capernaum Trail”), I am impressed with how much careful work has been done to make this a viable option for many future tourists.

I’ve noted the existence of the trail before (here and here and here and here), but I was unaware of a website that provides numerous resources for the future visitor. There is too much to mention here, but I would suggest a few sections as of interest to all, whether potential hikers or not.

Start with the map showing the points of interest. From there you can visit individual sites. I went immediately to the “Roman Road,” but you might prefer the Sea of Galilee or Arbel National Park.

From there I would head over to the blog, which has a number of interesting entries, including one with a free flyer with a map showing historical features and visitor facilities. If you want to see more detail, check out the day hikes and stage maps. As I said, this is a very well thought-out program and resource. There is also a new guidebook (see sample chapters here). If anything is missing, it must be the adventure that comes from not knowing where you are going.

If you’ve not been to Israel before, you may want to consider a trip that incorporates time on a trail such as this one. If you have been to Israel, this may be the impetus to get you back for a return trip.

There’s no reason to do the same thing twice!

Sea of Galilee from Mount Arbel. The view certainly was more enjoyable to me after hiking 70 miles from Dan to the Sea of Galilee on the Israel Trail.

Tagged Galilee, Resources, Tourism

Wednesday Roundup

An Iron Age fortress next to the Yarkon River in Tel Aviv shows evidence of trade with the island of Lesbos in the 8th-7th centuries. Archaeological work done at Tel Qudadi seventy years ago have only now been published. For a large version of the image published in the article, see Leon Mauldin’s blog.

The recent storm revealed an underwater cache of weapons from the British Mandate period at Caesarea. Divers were surprised by the changes they found. “We knew things would be different after the storm, but the site was changed so much that we could hardly recognize it.”

Israel had a record-breaking number of tourists in 2010. Christians comprised 69% of all visitors.

“The most visited sites included the Western Wall (77%), the Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem (73%), the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (61%), the Via Dolorosa (60%) and the Mount of Olives (55%).”

“Archaeologist” Vendyl Jones passed away recently.

Eight Americans were killed in Egypt when their bus crashed into a parked truck. The tourists were traveling from Aswan to see the temples of Ramses II at Abu Simbel.

This editorial at the New York Times suggests one way that museums can avoid buying off the black market: excavate the archaeological sites themselves.

Geza Vermes tries to rewrite history in a lengthy article on Herod the Great, arguing in part that Herod was the victim of nasty old St. Matthew who “transformed him into a monster.” I thought it was interesting how the author preferred the passive voice when describing the deaths of the people that Herod murdered. For instance, “Augustus with a heavy heart allowed Herod to try his two sons, who were found guilty and executed by strangulation in Sebaste/Samaria.” Josephus provides the only surviving account of the episode. He writes of Herod, “He also sent his sons to Sebaste, a city not far from Cesarea, and ordered them to be there strangled” (Wars 1.551; 1.27.6).

Scholars will present papers tomorrow (Dec 30) in honor of the retirement of Prof. Amihai Mazar. Aren Maeir has posted a schedule of the meeting (Hebrew).

The annual symposium in memory of Prof. Yohanan Aharoni is planned for February 17 at Tel Aviv University. A list of the papers is given here. Part II is entitled, “Debating the Future of Biblical Archaeology: Do Science and Technology Show the Way?”

If you need your football fix while in Israel, the full-contact amateur Israel Football League may beat staying up until dawn.

If you ever drive to the nature reserve at En Gedi, you may want to avoid parking under the trees next time.

HT: Joe Lauer, Keith Keyser, Gordon Govier

Tagged Discoveries, Egypt, Lectures, Tourism, Weekend Roundup

Mount Carmel Visit

Shmuel Browns has toured Mount Carmel in the aftermath of the fire and posts a report and a number of photographs. He writes:

On December 2, 2010 a fire erupted on Mount Carmel burning for 4 days until fire fighters could get the blaze under control and destroyed over 50,000 dunam of forest. The JNF estimates that 1.5 million trees were burnt in the fire, some estimates raise the total figure to 5.5 million trees and the Carmel Hai-Bar nature reserve was damaged. We learned that pine trees, soft woods with a lot of resin, are usually killed by the intense heat; their surival mechanism is that the pine cones open in the heat and hundreds of seeds are scattered. The oak trees, being a hardwood, often are able to live, the branches are burned and die but the roots survive and send up new shoots. According to officials, nearly half of the 150,000 dunams of the Carmel Forest reserve have been destroyed in the fire and it will take at least 20 years to for the forests to grow back.

See his blog for more details and pictures.

Tagged Tourism

Israel Selects 16 New National Heritage Sites

Arutz-7 identifies three of the newly designated sites as Umm el-Qanatir, Gamla, and the Herodium.

A Cabinet-level committee has added 16 new national heritage sites, including two in the Golan Heights and Herod’s tomb in Gush Etzion. Foreign media immediately tried to turn the decision into a political act.
[…]
Also on the list were two archeological sites in the Golan Heights and one in the Judean Hills, south of Jerusalem. All three are familiar to millions of tourists, but at least one foreign news agency implied that their inclusion on the list was a political decision because they are located in areas that are ”occupied.”
The Golan Heights have been a legal part of Israel for 30 years, but most international media still refer to it as “the occupied Golan.” One of the sites is Umm el-Kanitar, where archaeological excavations have revealed a Roman-era Jewish city and synagogue.
The other is on Gamla, a camel hump-shaped hill in the Golan that includes the remains of an ancient Jewish city and which was the site of the 1st century CE Jewish revolt against Roman conquerors. Gamla is a symbol of heroism for the modern State of Israel.
A third site is Herodian, the site of Herod’s palace in eastern Gush Etzion and a popular site for foreign tourists as well as Israelis.

The full article is here.

UPDATE: The Jerusalem Post story includes additional details.

Tagged Golan, Herod's Tomb, Tourism

Bethlehem Booked for Christmas

It was not all that many years ago that Bethlehem was a ghost town, as far as tourists were concerned. On the day I took the photo below, my students were almost the only tourists in town.

The situation for the city was particularly difficult because a large investment was made in tourist infrastructure in preparation for the year 2000. But the Arab uprising began in the latter part of that year, and tourists avoided Bethlehem, Jericho, and other Arab areas.

In those years, shopkeepers and hotel proprietors were desperate for visitors to stay longer. This year, you don’t even that choice, as there is literally “no room in the inn.”

From the Jerusalem Post:

Bethlehem has seen a record number of tourists this year and its thousands of hotel rooms are fully booked for Christmas week, thanks to steadily declining violence in the West Bank over the past few years.
[…]
So far this year, 1.4 million tourists have visited the traditional birthplace of Jesus and 90,000 are expected during the Christmas season, a significant increase over last year, according to Israeli government figures. The numbers of visitors have been rising steadily in recent years.
[…]
The town’s 2,750 hotel rooms are booked solid for Christmas week and four more hotels are under construction. The expected turnout for Christmas week is up strongly from about 70,000 last year.

How long will the upswing last? If history is any indication, not long.

An empty Nativity Square, October 2003

Tagged Judah, Tourism