Tourism Archives - Page 87 of 98

En Gedi Never Fails to Disappoint

This article by Yoni Cohen may be the most worthless piece of reporting I’ve seen in years of reading the Jerusalem Post. I can’t imagine that it took more than five minutes to write, nor can I understand why the Jerusalem Post is not exercising some editorial oversight over an article linked from the site’s front page. Perhaps these days it’s all about getting the “clicks,” but ultimately I think it’s a bad strategy.

The five photos are all blurry (to my eyes), but the three brief comments currently posted are more helpful than the article itself.

[This blog post took less than five minutes to write, but this illustrated page about En Gedi took much longer to create.]

Tagged Dead Sea, Tourism

The First Jerusalem Marathon

If you’ve ever been lost in the streets of Jerusalem, you may not be surprised to learn that the race leaders of the first Jerusalem marathon took a wrong turn and finished the race at the “wrong finish line.” From the Jerusalem Post:

The first runner to arrive at the actual finish line was Kenyan Robert Cheruiyot with a time of 2:27:48, but later on Raymond Kipkoechh, 34, of Kenya was announced as the official winner with a time of 2:26:44 after apparently going off the course and arriving at the finish line of the half-marathon in a different location. […] 1,500 people began the 26.2 mile (42 kilometer) race at 7am, followed by over 8,000 half-marathoners and 10k-competitors an hour later. Two jazz bands played while runners were completing their final preparations at the start.

Maps of the courses are available online (full marathon, half marathon, and 10k). The official website gives more details and starts the countdown to next year’s marathon on March 16.

Tagged Jerusalem, Tourism

Touring Israel

A number of articles or blog pieces have appeared recently about various sites and trails around Israel.

Shmuel Browns recently completed an eight-day hike on the Israel Trail, beginning at its southern end near Eilat. He posts some reflections and photos from his experience. The last picture in particular should get some of you to thinking about when you’re going to book your next flight to Israel. Browns also recommends a hike from the Timna Valley where one can see many plants in bloom this time of year.

Yoni Cohen writes in the Jerusalem Post about hiking in the Yehudia Forest Reserve, though the article is too brief. The National Parks official website has similar information, and I noted previously (with links) that this is the best place to hike in the summer. Last week Cohen wrote about Ein Akev and Ein Zik near Kibbutz Sede Boqer.

Ferrell Jenkins has written about two of the lesser known sources of the Jordan River, the Nahal Senir (Hasbani) and the Nahal Iyon (Bareighit). He also recently pointed readers to his free guide to biblically related artifacts in the British Museum.

Leon Mauldin is touring Israel now and has recently visited Gordon’s Calvary, Anathoth, and Gibeon.

Carl Rasmussen has begun a blog and his most recent post features several beautiful photos of a synagogue mosaic at Sepphoris.

In a new column at the Jerusalem Post, Wayne Stiles writes of Tel Dan and Qumran. On his blog, Stiles notes the release of a DVD four years in the making entitled “Experience the Land and the Book.”

Tagged Tourism, Travels, Weekend Roundup

Israel to Remove Minefields

Israel has finally decided to remove its minefields. From Arutz-7:

A law that will require the removal of all known mines in Israel passed its second and third Knesset reading Monday. The law, originally sponsored by former MK Tzachi Hanegbi (Kadima) and later by MK Roni Bar-On (Kadima), was approved by a 43-0 vote. It authorizes the Defense Ministry to set up a new department that will be responsible for clearing minefields in the Negev, Golan, and other parts of the country that the IDF had set up in the early days of the state.
[…]
Among those present in the Knesset plenum as the law was passed was Daniel Yuval, who was badly hurt several years ago when he entered a minefield in the Golan. Yuval, now 13, lost a leg to the mine that exploded when he inadvertently stepped on it in a snow-covered field where signs indicating that the field was mined were difficult or impossible to see. Yuval became an Israeli ambassador for the cause of land-mine removal, speaking around Israel and at international forums on the problem of land mines.

The full story is here.

Minefield near the southern end of the Sea of Galilee

Tagged Golan, Tourism

Tomb(s) of Noah

In Lebanon, just northeast of the city of Zahle, there is a small village named Karak Nouh. Karak Nouh is located in the Beqaa at the eastern foot of the Mt. Lebanon range. In a building adjoining the village mosque, there is a long sarcophagus draped in a green cloth. It is claimed this is the tomb of Noah.

Karak Nouh, Lebanon.

Mark Twain wrote about his visit to Karak Nouh in The Innocents Abroad.

Noah’s tomb is built of stone, and is covered with a long stone building. Bucksheesh let us in. The building had to be long, because the grave of the honored old navigator is two hundred and ten feet long itself! It is only about four feet high, though. He must have cast a shadow like a lightning-rod. The proof that this is the genuine spot where Noah was buried can only be doubted by uncommonly incredulous people. The evidence is pretty straight. Shem the son of Noah, was present at the burial, and showed the place to his descendants, who transmitted the knowledge to their descendants, and the lineal descendants of these introduced themselves to us to-day. It was pleasant to make the acquaintance of members of so respectable a family. It was a thing to be proud of. It was the next thing to being acquainted with Noah himself.

There is another tomb of Noah in the city of Cizre, Turkey (pronounced Jizre). Cizre is on the Tigris River, north of the location where Iraq, Turkey, and Syria all meet. To the east is Cudi Dağ, identified as Mt. Ararat in some traditions.

Tomb of Noah, Cizre, Turkey.

Evidently, there is also a shrine to Noah name Hazrat Nuh in Kerak, Jordan. I have not visited this one, nor do I know if there is a tomb associated with the shrine. I believe the shrine is the small, turquoise building at the far left in this photograph. It is located in a cemetery on the northwestern edge of the modern town.

Kerak, Jordan.

Tagged Jordan, Lebanon, Tourism, Turkey

Archaeology of Saudi Arabia

The Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities has initiated a new program called “Discover! Saudi Arabia” in an effort to promote the tourism industry. It is not easy to travel to Saudi Arabia, ~~though apparently now tourist visas are being issued if you travel with a group organized by a legitimate tour company.~~ [See comments—I am not able to determine whether Saudi Arabia is currently issuing tourist visas or not.]

A major exhibition of archaeological artifacts from Saudi Arabia named “Roads of Arabia” is presently making the museum rounds in Europe. It has already shown at the Louvre and just today completed its run in Barcelona. Eventually, the exhibition will make its way to major U.S. cities. Here is the exhibition description from the Louvre’s website.

This exhibition offers a journey through the heart of Arabia, orchestrated by photographs of the region’s sumptuous landscapes. It takes the form of a series of stopovers in some of the peninsula’s extensive oases, which in ancient times were home to powerful states or which, beginning in the 7th century, became Islamic holy places. The three hundred items chosen, most of which have never left their country of origin before, provide an original panorama of the different cultures that succeeded each other within the kingdom of Saudi Arabia from prehistoric times through the dawn of the modern world.

They reveal in particular the little-known past of a dazzling, prosperous Arabic world now being gradually discovered by archaeologists. Moving Neolithic funerary stelae, colossal statues of the kings of Lihyan (6th – 4th century BC), and silver tableware and precious jewelry placed in tombs testify to the dynamism of this civilization. Despite a hostile natural environment, the inhabitants succeeded in taking advantage of their country’s geographical situation as a crossing point for the roads linking the shores of the Indian Ocean and the horn of Africa to Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Mediterranean world. Early in the first millennium BC this trans-Arabian trade flourished, bringing prosperity to the caravan cities and permeating the local culture with new fashions and ideas from the great neighboring empires.

The second section of the exhibition highlights the role of Arabia as the cradle of Islam. The roads became crowded with pilgrims as well as traders; a first group of exhibits evokes the pilgrim paths and Al-Rabadha, one of the principal stopping-places. Following this road as far as Mecca, a second group comprises a selection of funerary stelae illustrating the evolution of writing and ornamentation between the 10th and 16th century and providing precious information on Meccan society at the time. Muslim sovereigns vied with each other in their generosity towards holy places, with buildings and such ventures into embellishment as this monumental door from the Ka’ba, the gift of an Ottoman sultan.

A review of the exhibition can be read here and a few photos can be seen here.

Finally, Jeffrey Rose just published an article entitled “New Light on Human Prehistory in the Arabo-Persian Gulf Oasis” in the journal Current Anthropology (pdf available here). Rose suggests that in the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene the area now known as the Persian Gulf was a large oasis which was watered by the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Karun, and the Wadi Batin rivers. Readers may recall the suggestion that Wadi Batin was perhaps the Pishon River, mentioned in Genesis 2:11 in connection with the garden of Eden. On this latter point, see James A. Sauer, “The River Runs Dry: Creation Story Preserves Historical Memory,” Biblical Archaeology Review 22/4 (1996), pp. 52-57, 64 and the discussion in Barry J. Beitzel, The New Moody Atlas of the Bible (Chicago: Moody, 2009), pp. 88-90 and p. 280, note 16.

HT: Joe Lauer

Tagged Arabia, Museums, Tourism