More From The North: Caves, Cliffs, Castles & Cormorants

First, our thoughts and prayers go out to all the Israelis who are suffering from the worst wildfires in the country's history.  During our travels over the last week in northern Israel, we saw the smoke rising in the distance from the slopes of Mt. Carmel.  It was a horrific sight.  We pray for a quick end to the nightmare and we give our deepest condolences to those have lost loved ones.  

We were fortunately not affected by the fires during our four days of touring.  Using the incredibly homey and bucolic moshav of Yodfat as our base, we saw so much we need two blog posts to cover it all.  As with our prior sightseeing in Israel, the amount and diversity of things to see were stunning.  And this was our second visit to Yodfat, our "home away from home" in northern Israel, where we've made some really good friends and where we're sure to visit (and eat felafel!) again.  

Our first stop was at Beit She'arim (not to be confused with Beit She'an, a spectacular ruined city we described in an earlier post).  Founded in the 1st century BCE during the reign of King Herod, Beit She'arim was initially one of many small Jewish settlements in the lower Galilee.  After the Romans banned the Jews from Jerusalem following the suppression of the Bar Kochba revolt (132-135 CE), the center of Jewish life moved to Beit She'arim.  The Sanhedrin (the highest judicial and ecclesiastical council of the Jews in the Land of Israel) settled in Beit She'arim and the revered Rabbi Judah Hanasi took up residence in the city.  He later moved to Tzipori, where he compiled the Mishnah, the oldest codification of Jewish oral law.  But he made arrangements to be buried in Beit She'arim, as an alternative to being buried on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, which Jews were barred from entering.  Many Jews followed suit, and the city's cemetery became a grand Jewish necropolis.  The city reached its zenith in the 3rd-4th centuries CE, but Roman soldiers under the Emperor Constantius II destroyed the city in 351 CE, following a revolt against the local Roman governor Gallus.  Today, the site contains dozens of fascinating cave tombs, with ornate doorways, grand subterranean hallways, labyrinthine passageways, rock-cut menorahs, and large sarcophagi with intricate carvings.  The kids also enjoyed climbing on the remains of an ancient synagogue.  

Jeremy playing at the ancient synagogue

Me'arat Keshet is another kind of cave altogether.  This is a large cave in a vertical rock face that has been eroded over the millenniums to form a spectacular - and somewhat scary - natural arch with beautiful views over the Mediterranean.  We had a great time hiking and exploring, except for our frantic yells of "stay away from the edge!"  This spot is not in our guide book (it certainly should be), but we heard about it from Eden's cousin Raya, always a font of useful touring information.   

Jeremy the Explorer

Eden and Talia cross the arch - very, very carefully

The caves and grottoes of Rosh Hanikra combine natural splendor with some recent political and military history.  Wind and water have eroded the white chalk cliffs to create a dramatic landscape and a major attraction for tourists (who descend from the cliffs in cable cars to wander through the scenic seaside grottoes) and sea turtles (who come here to lay their eggs) - right on the Lebanese border.  The British built a railway tunnel through the cliffs during World War II to transport troops, equipment and supplies to support their military campaign in the Middle East.  Jewish refugees from Europe also used the rail lines to get into Israel.  In 1948, the Israeli army destroyed the tunnels to seal off the border with Lebanon.  You really can't get any closer to the border - in the photos below, look for the wire extending out into the water that defines the boundary between Israel and Lebanon.  It was a bit surreal to eat in the restaurant overlooking the sea, sitting only a few hundred feet from Lebanon, across from a Muslim couple eating ice cream, while an Orthodox Jewish family walked by outside, with Elton John's "Benny and the Jets" playing on the loudspeakers.  Only in Israel. 

Can you see the wire demarcating the border?

View from our table in the restaurant

Lone fisherman, from the Rosh Hanikra parking lot

Another dramatic cliff is found in the Arbel National Park, which towers nearly 400 meters over the Sea of Galilee.  The grandeur of the site recalls many places in the American West.  As with Me'arat Keshet, it's a very steep drop in places and we would have preferred that the site had more safety railings, as both of our children seem to pick just the wrong time to explore their daredevil inclinations.  We agreed to a number of rules for visiting the site:  Rules 1, 2, 4, 5, and 8 were "Don't fall off the cliff."  (Rule 3 was "Stay close to Mom or Dad at all times.")  Arbel has a long history and some archeological remains (including an ancient synagogue), but the real attraction here is the natural landscape.

Talia wearing her colorful eye patch (per doctor's orders)

Moving from cliffs to castles, Montfort is a ruined Crusader castle that was originally built for agricultural purposes, but was subsequently fortified for military functions.  Compared to other medieval castles in Israel (such as Nimrod and Belvoir), there's not all that much left of Montfort.  But the ruins are quite pretty, the natural setting is downright gorgeous, and the half-hour hike to reach the ruins was a lot of fun.  Jeremy wanted to keep going (there's a riverbed down at the bottom of the valley), until we persuaded him that hiking in the wilderness after sunset was not a good idea. 

Yehiam castle is only 10 kilometers from Montfort.  Like so many places in Israel, Yehiam has multiple layers of history.  The earliest remains on the site are of a Roman fort and a Byzantine monastery.  The Crusaders built a large fort on top of the remains, which - like Montfort - was initially a farm building.  It was substantially fortified in the early 1200s, but that was not enough to prevent the Mamluks from destroying it in 1265.  About 500 years later, the site became the stronghold of the local Ottoman ruler, who rebuilt it.  Most of the remains on the site today date from the 18th century, including the large Ottoman reception hall, the interior of which is pictured below.  In 1946, the kibbutz of Yehiam was established and the founders used the castle remains for temporary shelter.  The kibbutz was under siege during the 1948 war, but it held out until the Israeli army gained control of the Western Galilee in May 1948.      

Ok, that takes care of the caves, cliffs, and castles, but what about the cormorants?  We'll get to them in a moment, but first is Mount Tabor, a Christian pilgrimage site near the Sea of Galilee.  Christians believe the Transfiguration of Christ occurred here, and the stately Franciscan Basilica of the Transfiguration, built in the 1920s, sits on the peak of the mountain.  There's also a good deal of Jewish history associated with Mount Tabor.  In the days of Second Temple, it was one of the mountain peaks on which it was the custom to light beacons to inform the northern villages of Jewish holy days.  As for military history, the Romans defeated Alexander of Judea nearby, in a battle that killed as many as 10,000 Jewish fighters, and in 66 CE the Jews of Galilee retrenched on the mountain under the command of Josephus Flavius to defend against the Roman assault.  We were greeted at the peak by a large contingent of passionate Christian pilgrims from Nigeria.  When a couple of women inquired if we'd ever been to Nigeria, I said no, but felt compelled to add that we have several hundred songs on our iPod by Nigerian musicians and have seen Femi Kuti four times in concert.  In addition to the Basilica, there's a small red-domed Greek Orthodox church, Byzantine ruins from an earlier church (which was destroyed during the Crusades), pretty gardens, and some great views. 

 

So, what is a cormorant anyway?  (They don't teach you those kinds of things in law school.)  It's a pretty black bird - one of the many attractions at the Hula Nature Reserve north of the Sea of Galilee.  Only 60 years ago, the area was a huge swampland comprising some 15,000 acres.  But in the 1950s, Israel began draining the marshlands to make way for farmlands and to stop the spread of malaria.  In response, a group of naturalists formed the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI), which succeeded in preserving 800 acres of wetlands.  In addition to the 200 species of waterfowl, there are turtles, nutria (kind of like a beaver crossed with a large rat), water buffalo, boatloads of catfish, and plenty of school groups.

 

Closeup shot of small turtle

A nutria glides past us

 

You'd think after all this time in Israel, we'd be running out of interesting things to see.  But it seems the opposite is true.  The more time we spend here, the more we learn about new things to see and do.  We're leaving for Egypt soon, but I'm already planning the next trip here in my head.