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Published: January 2nd 2009
Today I took my first organized tour to northern Israel traveling along the Mediterranean Sea.
Caesarea is chocked full of Roman, Byzantine and Crusader ruins and most famously housed two of King Herod's palaces complete with baths, a port, a cathedral, a theater and an aqueduct. Saint Paul was sent here but managed to get sent to Rome where he was eventually put to death.
Haifa is the third largest Israel city and has the largest port. We stopped at a lookout at the top of the city and were able to look down at the Baha'i gardens. We passed by the German colony consisting of houses built by Germans who assisted with excavating in the northern part of Israel in the 1800's.
Acre, aka Akko, is the most preserved Crusader city in the world. It is a walled city with 5000 years of history. Crusaders would arrive on the coast and be wisked through these underground tunnels to halls separated by which country they came from. Of course there were plenty of baths to soak in before heading out to fight the Muslims. Interestingly we were there at noon when noon prayers were going on at the
nearby mosque--quite loudly--a very interesting area of Jews, Christians and Muslims.
Next we headed to Rosh Hanikra which is right on the Lebanon border. We took a cable car down to the sea grottoes or caves with gorgeous exposed rock. This place is also famous for its' rail line built by the British through the hillside to extend the Cairo-Tel Aviv-Haifa line to Beirut.
Tomorrow it is off to Nazareth...
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Connie
non-member comment
Great pics!
Ann, great blog and awesome photos. Glad you are having such a great time! Connie