By: Jason

A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Megiddo contains 25 cities that have been built successively one on top of the other in the form of a Tel, or hill. In some place you can actually see cross-sections of the building materials from each civilization in the side of the hill. Megiddo is located about 15-20 miles from Haifa (about a 45-minute drive) and it overlooks the beautiful Jezreel valley.

The view of the Jezreel valley from Megiddo

 The earliest civilization during the Calcolithic period dates to around 8,000 BCE (or about 10,000 years ago)! Tels are very common throughout Israel, however Megiddo is highly complex and one of the best places where one can observe multiple civilizations that include Canaanite, Assyrian, Egyptian, and Israelite, among others in a relatively natural state.

Layers of history

This site was also named Armageddon and mentioned in the Book of Revelations by the Greeks and became famous (or infamous depending on how you look at it) for several battles. The modern usage of the word denotes ‘end of the world’-type scenarios. Tel Megiddo also served as a main fortress on the Roman military road to the sea or Via Maris (see the last paragraph for just how important). The Egyptians waged war in two separate battles here, one against the Caananites and one with the Kingdom of Judah. The details of these battles are still found as hieroglyphics in underground Egyptian temples. More recently, Megiddo was the battle site between the Ottoman Empire (present day Turkey) and the British army during World War I and the Mandate period.

  

Ancient temple with circular altar

This is really one of those places that you have to stop and just try to take it all in one step at a time. There’s no speed walking through this place or you’ll be bound to miss the ancient temples, homes, and horse stables that are 1,000s of years old.  

One of my other highlights was the view and the surrounding fields. My friend and colleague Alex informed me that what appeared to be an ordinary agricultural field was, in fact, an un-excavated Roman fortress that is considered one of the largest in the Middle East!  Not that I didn’t believe Alex, but we drove up to the field after our Megiddo adventure and walked briskly up to a small hummock where, in about two minutes, Alex overturned a few rocks and pulled up some Roman artifacts!!  Pretty cool!  FYI, it seems as though this site is going to be excavated this summer, so it will be interesting to see how it looks the next time I go.

By: Jason

As has been mentioned many times on this blog, there is no lack of good hikes (tiyulim) in and around Israel. Despite being such a small country, the number and kinds of hiking (waterfalls, plains, dessert, mountains, hills, coastal, beach) available are really amazing. Not to mention that in many of these places also walked some of the most important people in history.

Haifa, even though it is a large city, still offers an abundance of hikes, many of which are located in urban areas that cross-cut through wadis (Arabic for dry river beds) that connect one side of the city and mountain to the other (see related posts here, and here). Recently, I did a hike with my family at a location called the Hanging Bridge at Nesher Park within the Carmel National Forest, which is under the stewardship of the Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael (KKL, Jewish National Fund).

The view to the north

The suspension bridges with a bit of Haifa in the background

My family braving the bridges

What a place, but if you are afraid of heights (or bridges) you might think twice!! Yes, those bridges remind me of Indiana Jones and I could almost see Harrison Ford running towards me from the other side. That being said, these bridges were very sturdy and the views spectacular! I would highly recommend this hike to anyone traveling to or living in the Haifa area!

By: Rebecca and Jason

Last year, we were pleasantly surprised at how green the northern part of Israel is in the spring. We were fortunate to go on several trips to the Galilee and the Golan to see some of Israel's loveliest natural areas. It was something we wanted to do again this year.

Jason's aunt and uncle stayed with us for a few days this week and we decided another trip up north was in order. On the recommendations of friends and our trusty Lonely Planet guidebook, we set out for Gamla. A nature reserve in the Golan, Gamla is home to Israel's highest waterfall, rare Griffon vultures, and the remains of a fortified Jewish settlement. Led by Josephus Flavius, ancient Gamla joined the Jewish revolt against the Romans in 66 CE, but after a siege and subsequent attack, was defeated and it's inhabitants killed. Josephus escaped by agreeing to join the Romans and it is his writings that tell us the story of Gamla. The city was never rebuilt by the Romans and was forgotten about for 1,900 years until its rediscovery during a survey of the Golan Heights in 1968 after the Six-Day War.

Ancient Gamla on the side of the mountain

The scenery at Gamla is stunning. In the green of spring, the fields are awash with wildflowers and the waterfall flows dramatically down the face of the cliff. The cliffs are home to the nests of several different species of raptors; among them, the endangered Griffon vulture. Not beautiful, but certainly impressive, Griffon vultures grow to over 3 ft tall with a wingspan of almost 6 feet! We were lucky enough to see a pair guarding their nest. It was a beautiful day and the scenery is gorgeous, but the machine gun fire from the nearby army practice range is a little disconcerting. The signs tell you to please not shout in case you should disturb the birds, but I have to wonder if the machine gun fire isn't worse. 

Gamla cliffs

Gamla falls

One of the other surprising and impressive sites at Gamla are the stone formations clustered together in the fields. Known as dolmens, these 4,000 year-old stone tables are thought to have been ancient burial tombs used by nomadic tribes during the Bronze Age. This park, as many do in Israel, characterizes the presence of different peoples over thousands of years of history.

Ancient dolmen and giant fennel

Along with the lovely spring wildflowers, there are a variety of trees and shrubs including oak, pistachio, Judas tree, and willow. The vegetation is especially lush near the Gamla stream and serves as a home to all kinds of birds and frogs, which we were so surprised to hear. There aren't a lot of amphibians in such a dry country!

Spring wildflowers

Gamla is definitely one of our favorite national parks. We are glad we visited in the spring when the flowers were in full bloom and it wasn't oppressively hot. The surrounding area is home to several other parks and some great wineries. On a future visit to Israel, we'd love to explore it some more. 

See more photos from our adventure in the album below:

Gamla Nature Reserve

By: Rebecca

At the very northern tip of Israel's Mediterranean coastline is a place called Rosh Hanikra. From our balcony on a clear day, we can see the white cliffs marking the Israel-Lebanon border. But despite it's proximity to Haifa, and the fact that Rosh Hanikra is on everyone's must-do list, we had yet to make the trip. 

Having finally made it there last week, we know why everyone says "you have to go to Rosh Hanikra!" Rosh means "head" in Hebrew and Nikra means "cave/cavern" so Rosh Hanikra translates literally to "Head of the Cavern". The main attraction here are the grottoes carved by the sea into the chalk cliffs over thousands of years. You get to them by taking, apparently, the world's steepest cable car ride 200 feet down from the top of the cliff to the grottoes at the bottom. The ride is not for the faint of heart or those with a fear of heights. Once inside the caves, you are treated to beautiful scenes of turquoise water flowing through a maze of caverns. After wandering through the grottoes, you come back into the bright sun at the edge of the sea. The chalk cliffs are peppered with flint and fossils. We found several beautiful fossils of sand dollars and shells. 

The cliffs of Rosh Hanikra 

Inside the large grotto

The cable car ride to the grottoes

Fossils!

Rosh Hanikra is not just a place of natural beauty. For the history buffs, Rosh Hanikra played an important roll during the British Mandate period in Israel (then Palestine). The British, with help from thousands of workers from British colonies and Israel, built two railroad tunnels through the cliffs. The railroad connected Haifa with Beirut and Tripoli in Lebanon and was one of the primary means to deliver supplies to the British military from 1943-1948. It also served to bring Jewish refugees from concentration camps in Europe to Israel in 1944. 

The tunnel on the Lebanon side is now sealed, but you can walk into it for a distance. We were pretty sure we were at least under the border fence, so I suppose you could say we've been to Lebanon now as well. 

By: Rebecca 

Despite its small size, Israel has over 60 national parks and nature reserves. We have had the good fortune to explore many of them. From our first weekend in Israel, to this past week while my dad was visiting, we've been north to the Lebanon border and the Banias, south to Masada, and lots of places in between. We've discovered some great places, some of which are common knowledge and some of which seem to be hidden treasures. 

Just this past weekend we went to the Bet She'arim national park. Just 30 minutes from Haifa, it's an unbelievably cool place. The site of an ancient Jewish city where, instead of a regular cemetery, the dead were buried in catacombs carved into the side of the hill below the town. After the town was abandoned (in the 6th century), the tombs were ransacked, so when excavations began in the 1930s there wasn't a whole lot left. There were however, 135 sarcophagi - some of them large enough to fit 2 or 3 people. It was the final resting place for many famous rabbis and wealthy Jewish families of the time. Aside from the huge burial caves, many of which are open to explore, there are also hiking trails and a beautiful picnic area. We highly recommend it to anyone visiting (or living in) the Haifa region.

Cave of Rabbi Yehuda Hanassi - Bet She'arim N.P.

Thanks to a tip from our friend, and resident archaeologist, Alex, we also visited Belvoir Fortress -  known in Hebrew as Kohav HaYarden (Star of the Jordan). Just south of the Sea of Galilee, Belvoir was the last holdout of the crusaders against the invading Arab army under Saladin. The knights (called Hospitallers) held their fortress even as other Crusader forts fell under Muslim rule (Akko, Tiberias, even Jerusalem). After an 18-month siege, the knights surrendered and were allowed to return to Tyre in Lebanon unharmed. Described by 12th century Muslim historians as: "... but a nest of eagles and the dwelling place of the moon." The fortress stands at the edge of a plateau over 1,800 feet above the Jordan Valley. The castle is well-preserved and you really get the sense of what it must have been like at it's peak. The views are stunning and you can imagine the knights fighting to keep their stronghold.

View of the Jordan Valley from Belvoir N.P.

This time of year, the parks are quiet. We spent hours at Belvoir and saw 2 other people. As spring arrives, many of the parks will be awash with wildflowers and crowds of people enjoying the warm weather. We have more family visiting in the next month so we are looking forward to the excuse to go enjoy all that Israel's parks have to offer.

Ibex near Ein Gedi N.R.

I don't think we will get to all the parks before it's time to return to the U.S., but we are certainly going to take advantage of as many of them as we can! 

More photos of Israel's National parks and reserves here!

You can explore the parks online here. 

By: Rebecca

One of our goals for the fall and winter is go to on more tiyulim around Haifa. We took a step (or 316 of them) toward that goal last week on an exploration of one of Haifa's many wadis.

Called Nahal Siah, this hike starts from a nondescript trail above a school. It is impossible to tell that you are about to enter a lovely stretch of forest, but then suddenly you look up and see no buildings at all! At the end of the hike we had a choice: Walk to the road and take the bus home or, climb the crazy stairs up a steep hill to the Kababir Mosque. Guess which path we chose?

I thought this time I would create a little photo gallery of our hike. If you want to see larger versions of these photos, visit our photo album. Enjoy!

Starting the hike

Through the forest

Jason

A view of the mosque

The spring

The spring and wadi

Looking down the steps

Kababir Mosque

Rebecca

The view from the top - it was worth it!

Can you see the stairs? Look closely

Fossils in a cliff make of chalk

By: Jason and Rebecca

Tiyul: Hike, trek (pl. tiyulim)

As we have mentioned before, the city of Haifa is a mountain. The city isn't on the mountain, it is part of the mountain stretching from the gritty port on the Mediterranean to the University perched at the very top of Carmel Mt. (~1,800 ft above sea level). Hidden among the neighborhoods, shops, falafel stands, shrines, hotels and highrises, there is a surprising network of green spaces. These trails encompass a variety of terrains: forests, wadis (dry river beds), and hillsides covered in sun-loving plants and shrubs.

Jason hiking past a eucalyptus tree

Although there are 8 official trails, many more exist connecting all parts of the city.  Each trail is marked with a colored blaze, but unlike the White Mountains, the trailheads for the Haifa tiyulim can be very hard to find! They are hidden next to bus stops, at the end of a cul-de-sac, or, our favorite, behind the zoo!

Even though you are surrounded by the city, it feels like you are in another world. Enveloped by lush forest filled with bird song, you forget for a moment the busy metropolis on the other side of the trees. It is a welcome change of pace and a good chance to reconnect with nature. 

The Mediterranean sea framed by olive trees 

On a recent hike, we stopped for a snack and heard howling shrieks coming from further down the trail. Interestingly, we also heard them in our neighborhood the other night! Jackals! The sound is very unnerving - a cross between a howling wolf and a crying baby. 

One of our goals for the fall and winter is to take more tiyulim. I learned my lesson about hiking in the summer when I went on a tiyul with my friend Abby and her son Rafi. It started out, as most Haifa tiyulim do, with a long hike downhill. We passed some ancient ruins and lovely springs of cool fresh water. Looking at the map, we decided to hike across the hill and down to the other side to get the bus home. What we didn't realize was that we would be crossing a hillside with no shade in the hottest part of the day. At one point, we had to bushwhack our way to a road as the trail ran through a fenced-off construction area. We were tired and hot, but we made it! 

We are looking forward to many more tiyulim. It's so great to have a little bit of nature to escape to, even in a city the size of Haifa. 

You can look at a map of the city, showing all the green space at the Haifa Tourist Board's website: http://www.tour-haifa.co.il/eng/Attractions_Map.html

By: Rebecca and Jason

Two weekends ago we went on another trip to northern Israel thanks to Ehud and Bat-sheva, our unofficial Israeli parents and tour guides. 

After a quick trip to Ehud's dentist in Kiryat Shmona we headed off on our adventure. At the suggestion of the dentist (who is also Ehud's nephew), we headed up a winding road toward the Lebanese border. He told us about a very scenic drive that goes along the side of the mountain near the border. The scenery was gorgeous, the road was petrifying! It was like being on a roller coaster, but surrounded by cherry trees, a large fence (a.k.a. the border with Lebanon), and the occasional UN peacekeeping vehicle. 

Houses on the Lebanese side of the border.

Road along the border was lined with orchards of 
hundreds of cherry trees.

Once we got back to the main road, we headed to the Ayun nature reserve in the town of Metulla. There are four waterfalls along the Ayun Stream, all spectacular and all different. You park at the top and hike down - the trail is steep and in many sections there are long flights of stone steps. Because it is spring, there were many beautiful wildflowers. Israelis are crazy about wildflowers and in fact, there is a law that forbids picking them.  Ehud made friends with a tour guide who offered him a ride back to the car so that we didn't have to walk back up! 

Mill waterfall along the Ayun Stream.

Dizzying birds' eye view of the trail along the stream.

Everyone likes to relax after hiking and what better place to relax than a hot springs? Next stop on the Ehud and Bat-sheva extravaganza, the Hamat Gader hot springs (and crocodile farm!). The hot springs have been used since the Roman times. The spring gushes at a constant 108 degrees Fahrenheit and containers sulfur among other minerals. At first the slight smell of rotten eggs is a bit strange, but after a few minutes you don't even notice it. The bathing pool is just a few feet deep and has several different sections. There are showers and jacuzzis built right in to the pool. It's very relaxing so long as you don't mind sharing your bath with large, hairy middle-eastern men. There were a few other western tourists - mostly Christian pilgrims (including a woman we met from Cape Cod). We didn't bring our cameras into the spa, but here's one from the web.

Hamat Gader at night (thanks Wikipedia)

After a good night's sleep, we headed out for a visit to Mt. Tabor. The mountain holds an important place in history - both religious and political. From battles between the Israelites and the Canaanites, Napoleon and the Mamluks, to the believed Transfiguration of Jesus, this mountain has seen it all including... paragliders. Yes, the first thing we saw as we drove up the nearly single lane, 16-hairpin-turns road to the summit were a couple dozen paragliders.

Paraglider or paranormal?

At the top, the beautiful Church of the Transfiguration, lovely gardens, and the Greek Orthodox church (which, like many things in Israel, is being renovated so we could not go inside). There are hiking trails around the mountain, including the Israel national trail (like the Appalachian Trail of Israel), but it was hot so we passed on that for the day. 

Church of the Transfiguration.

On the way home, we stopped for a photo op in a nearby town surrounded by orchards and fields of gorgeous flowers. 

Quintessential springtime in Israel - a field of lupines. 

Thanks to Ehud and Bat-sheva for a great weekend!

More pictures here!

By: Rebecca and Jason

We took a two day Fulbright-sponsored trip to northern Israel and the Galilee. It was great to spend some time getting to know the other Fulbrighters and hear about their experiences in Israel thus far. 

Almond trees and Mt. Hermon.

Our travels included a variety of stops, farms, nature reserves, and ethnic villages: 

Spicy Way Farm Store - more spices, 
herbs, and teas than you can imagine.

One of the most unexpected and surprising stops on the tour was a village called Kfar Kama. The village is home to a group of people known as Circassians. The Circassians originated from an area in the north Caucasus mountains (now Chechnya). The Circassian people are known as extremely brave and fierce warriors - evidenced by the armor and weapons on display. The Cicassians in Israel serve in the Israeli army and consider themselves to be full citizens. 

Our guide at the Heritage Center spoke to us in his native Circassian language. It didn't sound like words, but more like sounds from nature. For example, the word for ocean sounded like a wave breaking, the word for bee sounded like bzzzzzz, and the word for wind sound liked like rustling leaves. 

Although this was a town of about 4,000, the Circassian diaspora is found elsewhere in the middle east, Turkey and the USA (California, New Jersey, and Maine).

Traditional dancers in traditional dress at the 
Circassian Heritage Center

We stopped for lunch in a Druze village called Peqi'in, which is also the site of the Cave of Shimon bar Yochai. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai was a spiritual leader and believed to be the founder of the kabbalistic tradition of Judaism. According to legend, to escape the Romans, he and his son hid in a very small cave for 13 years living on the fruit of a carob tree and water from a spring.

Not sure I could live in this cave 
for 13 years!

The Druze are a distinct religious group - the basis of their beliefs is derived from Shia Islam, but their secretive faith differs from mainstream Islam on many fundamental points. Most Druze live in Syria or Lebanon, but a small (less than 10) percentage live in Israel, where they serve in the military and even have members in Parliament. 

Lunch in a traditional Druze restaurant. 

We stayed the night at the hotel at Kibbutz Kfar Blum. The kibbutz is the Tanglewood of Israel, hosting a large music festival in the summer. The hotel was beautiful and we were happy to spend some time in the spa before dinner (thanks Fulbright!).

The next day, our first stop was Dubrovin Farm in Yesod Hama'ala. The Dubrovin family immigrated in 1904 from Russia (though they were not Jewish, they later converted). The farm won many awards in agriculture and is credited with cultivating a large variety of chickpea which is now grown world-wide. 

The kitchen at the Dubrovin Farm Museum.

After lunch we went to the Banias Nature Reserve. The Banias is the headwaters of the Jordan River at the base of Mt. Hermon (2,800 meters or 9,200 feet!). From the springs emerge cold, clean water that flows into beautiful natural pools. The water from these springs provides drinking water for people and wildlife alike. Water is a big deal here for obvious reasons!

The Hermon Spring at Banias.

We couldn't believe how much water there was and how green everything was. It really felt like walking through a forest! There were lots of trees (willows, Syrian ash, oak, poplar, almonds), flowers, and wild raspberries (we plan to go back when those are ripe!).

As with everything in Israel, there are layers of history superimposed on the natural landscape. The other fascinating part of the Banias is the archaeology. The Greeks built a temple here to honor the God Pan. The temple evolved during the reigns of King Herod and the Romans. Many parts of the temple are still intact and the site is an active archaeological dig. The name Banias comes from the word Paneas (the 'p' becomes a 'b' in the Arabic pronunciation).

The remains of the Temple of Pan.

The last stop on the tour was the Agamon Lake bird sanctuary in the Hula Valley. The Hula valley is a vital stopping point for migratory birds flying between Africa and Europe. You can find more than 200 different species here during the year. Agamon Lake was Israel's first nature reserve (set up in 1964). We were both glad not to have a fear of birds! It was crazy!! We took a guided tractor ride through the reserve at feeding time. There were thousands of birds, mostly wood cranes, and they were hungry! 

Cranes coming in for food.

Visit our photo album for more pictures and some video of this trip.