Tourism Archives - Page 92 of 96

Top 10 Tourist Destinations for Israelis

What tourist destinations inside Israel are the most popular for Israelis? Dun and Bradstreet published the top spots for this year. From Ynet News:

1. Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem

2. Ramat Gan Safari

3. Masada

4. Caesarea

5. Hamat Gader hot springs

6. Ein Gedi

7. Yamit 2000 Water Park

8. Underwater Observatory in Eilat

9. Banias Archaeological Site

10. Tel Aviv Luna Amusement Park

I haven’t been to numbers 7 or 10, but the others are all terrific places to visit with your family. I would guess that the beaches around the Sea of Galilee are excluded from consideration, because they would certainly rank high on the list. I’m surprised about Banias; I’d expect more people to prefer to picnic at Tel Dan. That reminds me: what McDonalds in Israel has the best scenery? I’d vote for the one next to the Senir stream (the headwaters of the Jordan River, just west of Tel Dan).

Unfortunately I don’t seem to have a photograph. I do have one of dinner time at the zoo.

HT: Paleojudaica

Hippopotamuses at Biblical Zoo of Jerusalem

UPDATE (4/10): Randy Burk has sent a photo of the view from the McDonalds outdoor eating area.

Nice!

Nahal Senir, view from McDonalds, Randy Burk, IMG_2975

Nahal Senir, headwaters of the Jordan River

Tagged Jerusalem, Tourism

Qumran Caves 1 and 2

One of the most common questions I am asked when at Qumran is the location of the Dead Sea Scrolls caves. There are 11 caves, discovered between 1947 and 1956, and some are in the limestone cliffs while others are in the marl terrace next to the site. Fortunately for tour guides, one of the caves is easily visible from Qumran and visitors snap their shot of Cave 4 and leave happy.

Most guides do not know where the other caves are. They don’t need to know. Access is either difficult or impossible, in the case of the marl terrace caves (4, 5, 7, 8, 9, and 10). The caves in the limestone cliffs require a hike, are unmarked, and are not easy to find even if you’ve been there before. Finding photographs of many of the caves is also difficult, though I tried to change that in the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands (and see now, Hanan Eshel’s Qumran, though even there one of the cave photographs is mis-identified and the photo of another is reversed).

The cave that the more intrepid would like to find is Cave 1. Two of my colleagues and I spent half a day in the late 90s climbing all over the cliffs in the picture below. We had given up when the last of us spotted it on his way back to the car. But that didn’t make it any easier to find the next time I went looking. Years later I took a friend, and when he went back with a group in tow, he couldn’t find it.

If finding Cave 1 (or 2) is something that has haunted you, hopefully this blog post and photos will help. If you prefer this in a printable pdf file that you can take with you on your next trip, you can download that here.

This is the most important photograph, for it gives you a frame of reference. The photo was taken from the road leading north from Qumran to the settlement of Kallia. The view is obviously to the west.

You cannot see Cave 1 from the road, or from anywhere approaching the cave, because it is hidden behind a large rocky outcropping and the cave faces south. The key to finding it is to look for the large rock that juts out on the right side of the draw (circled above).

I do not recommend climbing to Cave 1. The terrain is very difficult, and you will probably get hurt if you try. I highly recommend you consult with your lawyer first, and if he releases me, my family, and all of my current and former friends from any and all liability, then you can attempt it, if you are accompanied by your medical doctor.

In the unlikely event one should attempt it, you would climb past the rocky outcropping and just behind it, on the right, you would see Cave 1 (pictured above). The original cave is the hole on top.

Excavators cut away the area below in order to make the larger entrance today. Inside Cave 1 were found the seven original Dead Sea Scrolls: Isaiah A, Isaiah B, Manual of Discipline, War of Sons of Light, Thanksgiving Scroll, Genesis Apocryphon and Habakkuk Commentary. The cave has been excavated and no traces of any finds can be seen today.

Cave 2 is a bit like a silver medal at the Olympics, and it doesn’t excite most people. But if want to be able to see a cave without climbing up the dangerous mountainside, you can see Cave 2 from the perspective shown above. Again, use the reference photo above to get in the area, and then this photo to narrow in on the precise cave (center top). As with Cave 1, climbing to Cave 2 is difficult and not recommended.

Caves 3, 6, and 11 are all easier to reach, so these may be a better option for you. Knowledge of the location of these caves is more widespread, so I will forego writing out directions to those.

Tagged Dead Sea, Tourism

Mount Zion Vandalism, Filmmakers in Galilee

The Caspari Center Media Review has two unrelated stories that may be of interest to readers here:

Signposts and directions to the Cenacle [Upper Room on Mount Zion] were defaced by anonymous vandals this past week, adding insult to the injury felt by Christian tourists faced with the piles of refuse and rubbish it contains and making it difficult for them to find their way to the site (Yediot Yerushalayim, March 19).
Other Christian sites are no more attractive to pilgrims, according to a report in Ma’ariv (March 21). According to Yuval Peled, who accompanied a group of Italians who had come to film the Galilee in which Jesus grew up, lived, and taught, “After two or three days of shooting, they abruptly announced that they were leaving. ‘They told us, “You’ve destroyed the story for us, with all the pollution, electricity wires, and infrastructure. This isn’t what we were taught about the place where Jesus grew up,”‘ he recalls. The crew, which had planned to broadcast the film on Italian television – the country considered to be the capital of Christianity – told us that here, in the most authentic place in which the founder of their religion lived, we had destroyed their associations [to it] with pollution and infrastructure. Out of disappointment and despair, they left, and went to shoot the film in Tuscany.”

This sounds like a bit of an overreaction to me. I don’t like the pollution and wires either, but Galilee is remarkably primitive. Imagine what the lakeshore would be like if it was in the U.S.

I can’t say I have ever thought of Italy as the “capital of Christianity.”

Tagged Galilee, Italy, Jerusalem, Tourism

One Million Kippot Donated to Western Wall

From the Jerusalem Post:

Visitors no longer have to hold cardboard kippot on their heads when visiting the Kotel: The Western Wall Heritage Foundation has received a donation of 1 million nylon yarmulkes.
According to a statement Wednesday from the office of the rabbi of the Western Wall and Holy Sites, the distinct and sometimes awkward cardboard head coverings that have been offered to male visitors to the site for 40 years have been replaced.
The white cloth yarmulkes, which were apparently made in China to cut costs, were given to the foundation on Sunday and are now available for use at the entrance to the Kotel area.
Though this is not the first time new yarmulkes have been donated to the Kotel, said the rabbi’s assistant on Wednesday, this is the first time there has been a large enough number to accommodate the more than eight million people who visit the site each year.
[. . .]
The new yarmulkes, like the cardboard ones, are considered “disposable” – people are allowed to take them home. But the old ones may become a collector’s item: Some are being sold on ebay for $6.

The full story is here. You can buy a cardboard kippah on ebay here. If you’re wondering why it’s sometimes called a kippah and why sometimes yarmulke or even what one is and why they’re so important, this Wikipedia article has some good information.

Men praying at Western Wall

Tagged Jerusalem, Tourism

Two New Trails and 150 Restored Sites

Israel is planning to build two new trails in conjunction with the restoration of 150 historic sites. A number of sites on the list have been mentioned as in need of restoration here before, including Lachish, Hurvat Madras [Khirbet Midras], and the Sanhedrin Garden. We’re a big fan of a number of other sites on the list as well, though we see less need for restoration on some than for others.

Sometimes government involvement makes things worse not better, a case in point being the new Arbel National Park. Trails, however, are always good.

Haaretz reports:

The government is planning on spending NIS 500 million ($135 million) over five years to restore and preserve heritage sites across the country.
[. . .]
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu devoted a large part of his address at the Herzliya Conference to outlining the plan.
“The guarantee of our existence is dependent not merely on weapons systems or military strength or economic strength or our innovativeness, our exports, and all these forces which are indeed so vital to us,” he said. “It is dependent first and foremost on the intellectual capacity and the national feelings that we inculcate – from parents to children, and as a state, in our educational system.”
Netanyahu said that he plans to present a blueprint to the government on February 25 that will include, among other things, the inauguration of two trails, in addition to the existing Israel National Trail (“Shvil Yisrael”).
One is an historical trail connecting dozens of archaeological sites, and the second is an “Israeli Experience” trail linking up over 100 places important to the nation’s more recent history and will include buildings that are to be preserved, settlement sites, small museums and memorials.
[. . .]
At Tel Lachish, which Netanyahu referred to in his speech, the plan is to restore the gate into the city and the city walls, to prepare trails, to build an entrance hall and to add signposts, among other things.
Other sites marked for restoration are Neot Kedumim, Susya, Qumran, Jason’s Tomb in the Rehavia neighborhood of Jerusalem, the Sanhedrin Garden, the Eshkolot Cave, Umm al-Amad, the Beit Shean antiquities, Tel Megiddo, Tiberias, Tel Arad, Tel Dan, Hurvat Madras, the park around the Old City of Jerusalem and the City of David.
There are another 109 heritage sites and projects earmarked for restoration and preservation. They are to be found throughout the country and include such sites as the Independence Hall in Tel Aviv, the Aronson farm and the signaling station at Atlit, the Emek train between Haifa and Tzemah and the Tzemah train station, the Old Courtyard Museum at Ein Shemer, the original homes of the settlers at Migdal in Ashkelon, the street of the Biluim and the winery in Gedera, the courtyard at Kinneret, the Montefoire [sic] quarter of Tel Aviv, the agricultural school at Mikveh Yisrael, the old Jerusalem train station and others.

You can read the article here.

HT: Paleojudaica

Lachish gate (foreground) and palace (top), in a state of neglect. These buildings date to the late Iron Age, a time when Lachish was the second most important city in Judah (after Jerusalem).

Tagged Galilee, Jerusalem, Shephelah, Tourism

Jerusalem’s Old City Wall Being Repaired

First-time tourists excited to see the walls of the Old City may be a bit disappointed in 2010. Scaffolding has been erected along sections of the western and southern walls in an effort to restore the Turkish wall built in 1540. From Haaretz:

Three years ago a stone from the Old City wall in Jerusalem fell into a church school yard next door. Fears that the wall was crumbling spawned a complex project to restore its stones while preserving traces of history left by inscriptions, shells and animals.
It turned out later that the stone had fallen from a Jordanian support column rather than the Ottoman wall. But by then the NIS 15 million renovation project was already on its way.
[…]
As elsewhere in the world, Jerusalem’s wall consists of two stone walls with earth in between. The greatest threat is from water penetrating the stone layers, causing the stones to shift and topple. The renovators must seal the cracks without changing the wall’s facade. In some cases they have no choice but to replace a flawed stone at the cost of changing its original color or appearance.
“We don’t clean the stones completely,” says Mashiah. “The wall doesn’t have to look like a new building. It should remain ancient.”
[…]
The wall’s renovation is due to be completed in about a year, except for the section surrounding the Temple Mount, where the Muslim Waqf trust refused to allow restoration work. The owners of various sections of the interior wall also refused the renovators access.
The Zion Gate, ravaged by thousands of shells in the War of Independence and by exhaust fumes and countless car collisions, has been painstakingly renovated. The memorial stone for the Harel Brigade combatants, which blocked one of the gate’s lattices, has been moved.

Read the full story here.

HT: Joe Lauer

Jaffa Gate under renovation, January 2010

Southern wall of Old City under renovation, January 2010

Tagged Jerusalem, Tourism