What to See in Israel
Rosh ha-Nikra– grottoes of amazing beauty, the meeting place of the sea and white rocks.
Safed is the city of the upper Galilee, the city of streets running down from the top of the mountain, the city of old synagogues and art galleries, the city of folk music festivals and the Jewish mystical teachings of Kabbalah.
Banias is a nature reserve, a valley of waterfalls. Place of ancient worship of pagan gods. Cave sanctuary of the Greek deity Pan.
The Golan Heights is a mountainous basalt plateau that towers over Syria and the coast of the Kinneret. According to A2zgov, harsh landscapes are interspersed with mountain waterfalls, apple, plum and pear orchards, traces of ancient synagogues and fortresses.
Capernaum is a fishing village where Jesus lived, preached and healed. “His city”, glorified and cursed by Jesus. Majestic synagogue, 4th-5th centuries, probably in the place where Jesus and his disciples met. Peter the Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Church of the Twelve Apostles.
Tabgha is a valley of “seven springs” off the coast of Kinneret. Temple and Monastery of the Benedicts “Multiplication of Loaves and Fishes”. Under the altar of the temple is a rock ledge: “Menza Christi” – “The Table of the Lord. Here lay 5 loaves and 2 fish, with which Jesus fed 5 thousand people.
Acre is the most important port on the “Via Maris” (the road that linked Egypt and Mesopotamia in ancient times). The city of the Dominicans and Alexander the Great, the capital of the second kingdom of the crusaders, the city that did not surrender to Napoleon. Walking along the streets of old Akko, you will find yourself in the wonderful world of the Mediterranean with its noisy bazaars, spices, coffee and the sweet smoke of a hookah, where, leaving the mosque of Ahmed Al Disau-zar, you suddenly find yourself in the famous Crusader fortress, the underground passage of which takes you to souvenir shops. shops and taverns with a tart smell of the sea, spices and fish.
Haifa is a city that descends in terraces from Mount Carmel. Upper Haifa is beautiful, well-groomed, striking with an abundance of greenery and luxury villas, going down, it changes before our eyes and becomes bustling, seething with energy Lower Haifa, with its ultra-modern port, industrial zone and many small shops and cafes with falafel and shawarma. The pride of Haifa is the spiritual center of the Baha’is of the whole world, a temple on a mountainside, an inscribed cascade of amazingly beautiful Persian gardens.
Lake Kinneret– the Sea of Galilee, the Sea of Tiberias, the Sea of Gennesaret – the pearl of Israel. A lake bordered by the Galilee and Golan mountains, on the banks of which date groves and citrus plantations alternate with modern equipped beaches with water slides, the silence of monasteries with fields of kibbutzim. And all this is Lake Kinneret: “like a mirror of God in a green frame.”
Kibbutzim are a unique community experience based on goodwill and equality in the distribution of labor and income, joy and sorrow. Artificial oases created by hope, sweat and love for the earth.
Tiberias is a city on the banks of the Kinneret, named after Mark Tiberius, the patron saint of Herod Antippa, who founded the city. Tiberias has become a place of rest for the greatest thinkers and teachers Meir baal Nes, Rabbi Akiva, Yochanan ben Zakkai, Rambam. A city of luxurious hotels and student hostels, a city of pleasure boats with night discos and restaurants with the famous St. Peter’s fish, which every self-respecting tourist in Israel must try.
Hamat-Gader– hot sulfur water springs at the foot of the Glan Heights, the healing properties of which have been known since ancient times. Today there is also a crocodile nursery, and excavations of thermae of the Im period, and the opportunity to enjoy therapeutic and cosmetic massages.
Yardenit is a modern place of baptism of pilgrims on the Jordan River.
Beit Shean is one of the oldest cities in the world, named “Scythopolis” by Alexander the Great. The largest archaeological park in Israel: the “Egyptian temple”, the Roman Cargo street, baths, mosaic floors, temples and streets of the Byzantine period. The restored Roman amphitheater still receives guests today.
Nazareth is the city from which the good news spread to the whole world, the city of the “Holy Family”. The modern Church of the Annunciation, striking in its splendor, and next to the Greek-Orthodox Church of the “Well of the Virgin Mary”. Here the Virgin Mary heard: “Hail, Virgin!”, here and today you can draw holy water from the Well of Mary for yourself and your loved ones.
Meggido is the largest city-gate to the Ezrael Valley, numbering 24 (!) layers of civilizations: the fortress wall and the stables of King Solomon, described in the Old Testament, the pylons of King Ahab. The most complex water supply system of the fortress. At the foot of the valley is Armageddon, mentioned in the Apocalypse of John the Theologian, where, according to prophecy, the last battle between good and evil will take place.
Tzippori was the capital of Galilee at the time of Jesus. Excavations of the Roman and Byzantine periods. The most beautiful mosaics, including the “Galilean Giaconda”, looking at us for almost 2000 years.
Caesarea is a port city founded by Herod the Great and named after the emperor Caesar Augustus. The residence of the Roman procurators of Judea, including Pontius Pilate. The capital of Palestine during the Byzantine period. Here, in Caesarea, Paul was kept in custody for 2 years. In Caesarea there was the largest Christian library, and later – the first theological school of the “Church Fathers”. The city-fortress of the crusaders, the surviving fortress wall of which was laid by Louis IX Saint.
Netanya is a modern resort town on the Mediterranean coast. The favorable location makes various trips around the country possible.
Tel Aviv is the symbolic city of modern Israel. It is in Tel Aviv, as in no other place in Israel, that the dynamism of this country, its inner freedom, readiness for change, friendliness and cheerful disposition of its people are felt. The city of business centers and theatres, the Israeli press and museums, political parties and the Israeli Diamond Exchange. The city that doesn’t sleep…
Jaffa is one of the oldest port cities in the maritime history of mankind, the main sea gate of Judea. From here, the Ark saves Noah’s family from the global flood and “from every creature in pairs.” Here St. Peter stayed at Semyon the Tanner, and here the maiden Tabitha was resurrected by him. Quiet, cozy streets of the restored old Jaffa invite you to visit the galleries of sculptors, artists, jewelers, sit on the open terraces of restaurants and cafes, admiring the lights of the Tel Aviv embankment.
The Jordan Valley is a picturesque valley along the Jordan River, linking the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea.
Jericho– traces of the first settled human settlement on earth. A city mentioned many times in the Old and New Testaments. A city destroyed by the sound of the trumpets of the Israelites led by Joshua. The ruins of the winter palaces of the Hasmonean and Herod kings. Synagogue of the 4th century, in which a mosaic with the words: “Peace to the people of Israel” has been preserved. Monastery Karontal on Mount Temptation.
Jerusalem is the center of the three world religions. Beginning of the Universe. Capital of Israel. An amazing city of amazing destiny. The city is strange, inexplicable and beautiful. Someone is driven here by religious awe, someone by curiosity, someone by pain and hope, and someone by the eternal search for truth. “Oh, Jerusalem! The earth came out of you and it will return to you, like a rolled scroll, at the end of time…”
Wadi Kelt is a picturesque gorge with steep slopes, to which the monastery of St. George “clung” – one of the first monasteries of the Judean desert. Hermit monks still live in the natural caves around the monastery to this day, imitating Elijah the prophet, who once spent three long years in these places.
Bethlehem is a city south of Jerusalem, the birthplace of King David. The city where Joseph and his young wife Mary go to the census, and where their son Jesus was born in a cave, with whose death the course of human history changes. Today, Bethlehem attracts pilgrims from all over the world with the opportunity to bow to the Church of the Nativity, the Milk Grotto, Shepherd’s Fields.
Qumran is an ancient Jewish settlement on the shores of the Dead Sea at the foot of the Judean Mountains. Here the “Dead Sea Scrolls” were found – the main archaeological find of the 20th century. Fragments of the scrolls are kept in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
Ein Gedi is a nature reserve on the site of a biblical oasis in the Judean Desert. Hiking trails to waterfalls and mountain lakes. Traces of agriculture and habitation of the biblical period. Kibbutz Ein Gedi surrounded by a planted tropical garden and a unique collection of cacti.
Dead Sea– The composition of the Dead Sea water distinguishes it from all the seas and oceans of the world. This is one of the secrets of this earth, the clues of which scientists do not know. So far, only the Bible gives the answer: the Dead Sea on the site of those who sinned, punished by fire and flooded with water, Sodom and Gomorrah. The unsolved composition of the water makes the Dead Sea one of the wonders of the world. Not only can you walk on this sea “like on dry land”, you are also treated by plunging into warm, mineral-rich water. Anyone who has visited this place can boast that he has stepped to the bottom of the world.
Masada is the ruins of an ancient fortress on the top of a mountain in the southwest of the Dead Sea, built by Herod. Fortified walls, Herod’s palaces, baths, huge reservoirs, an ancient synagogue. Site of the last heroic resistance of the Jews to the Romans during the Jewish War.
The Negev is a mountainous desert that has seen the flocks of Abraham, Yitzhak and Jacob. Today there are modern cities, gardens and fields advancing on the desert, the most beautiful hiking trails, travel by jeeps or camels.
Arad– in ancient times the southern border of Judea. Today, a young city in the desert, with an amazing climate, where pulmonary diseases are perfectly treated thanks to the mountain air and the proximity of the Merivoy Sea.
Mamshit– the ruins of one of the cities of the Nabataeans. The Nabataeans are a mysterious people who appeared out of nowhere and disappeared into history. The people who managed to conquer the Negev desert in ancient times, who laid trade caravan routes from the Dead Sea to the Mediterranean.
Ein Avdat is a spring at the bottom of one of the canyons of the Negev. Panorama of the picturesque gorge.
The Ramon crater is a “geological window” into the bowels of the earth, a unique opportunity to follow the formation of the layers of the earth’s crust. Lunar landscape, bewitching with its beauty.
Timna Park is a nature reserve, on the territory of which there are copper mines – a place where copper ore was mined from the 13th-14th centuries. BC. Rock paintings of the Egyptian period, the pagan temple of the goddess Hathor. Rocks of purple, brick color of bizarre shapes: “pillars of King Solomon”, “arches”, “mushrooms” and “bells”. The legendary film “King Solomon’s Mines” was filmed in the park.
Eilat is a city on the shores of the Red Sea, surrounded by the rearing outlines of the mountains of Edom. Blue, blue sea, striking with the colors of the underwater kingdom, before the richness of which the human fantasy, ashamed, fades. The mountains are waiting for active nature lovers: jeeps, tractors, camels, mountain trails. Affectionate, clean sea accepts everyone. Luxurious hotels, swimming pools, jet skis and bananas, jet skis and parachutes, an underwater observatory and a dolphinarium. Well, in the evening – restaurants, yachts, pubs, discos, street ensembles and the embankment, shimmering with music and lights.