Dears,

Today's menu:

(The pictures are clickable.)

In a couple of days I will leave Israel. My year here passed so fast... of course it was to be expected. It was a good year, I have done some nice work. Surely I could have done more, but I am happy with what we have achieved with Saharon.

I still have some pictures that I would like to share with you. Unfortunately, I do not have too much time to write nice stories about those places. So I will just go very fast and without much commenting I will show you a little bit of 5 more places in Israel, going from the north of the country to the very south end of it.

Acre

In the northern part of Israel there is a city which - at least in my mind - is inherently connected with the Crusades. After all, the fall of that city in 1291 marked the end of the Kingdom of Jerusalem . Yes, I am talking about Acre, one of the oldest continuously populated cities in the world. Already in the times of Pharaoh Thutmose III (some 3500 years ago) people lived here; the city of Akka is also mentioned in Amarna letters. I recommend you to have a look at these sites: Acre, again Acre and once again Acre.

Today, the majority of the population in Acre are Muslim Arabs and this fact determines the overall character of the city:

Some people say that in the old part of town there are two levels: underground and right above the ground we have remains from the time of the Crusades, above it we have a town built in times of the Ottoman Empire. Indeed, if one looks carefully at the buildings, there is a kind of a cutting line visible:

In many places old construction materials were re-used in newer buildings: Khan al-Umdan built in the 18th century:

Acre used to be an important port city, but in the 20th century the importance of Acre's port was diminished. The reasons for the fall of the port included the fact that Haifa is just on the other side of the bay:       Today we can see only this:

with some hints of the past glory of the port of Acre:

Caesarea

An hour drive south from Acre, there is the city of Caesarea. There are very nice houses there and a beautiful beach, but most importantly there is an archaeological park with lots of excavations. Caesarea Palaestina, built by Herod the Great in 25-13 BCE, was right here and today one can see a lot of remains of that and later periods.

Roman theatre:
various finds:
Herod's palace:
an inscription
confirming that
Pontius Pilate was
the governor of Iudaea Province
Herod's hippodrome:
bathhouse
(Bizantine times)
the Crusader
church
Crusader
fortifications

The Westerm Wall Tunnel

I guess everybody is already tired with pictures from Jerusalem, but let me show you one more tourist attraction of this beautiful city: the Western Wall Tunnel. It is not that easy to get there - one has to make reservation well in advance or buy an organized tour.

The entrance to the tunnel is just by the Western Wall and it runs (underground) along the remains of the western side of the wall around the Second Temple (after Herod's expansion). The final segment of the tunnel is actually an old aqueduct from the Hasmonean times. (The aqueduct was closed by Herod's engineers during the expansions of the Temple.)

The beginning
of the tunnel
a wall built
by Herod the Great
and more of that wall
(we are quite deep
underground here)
This place is
the closest to
the Foundation Stone and
the Holy of Holies
Some people come
to pray here or
to leave a note:		 On the surface,
x yards above,
90 yd East...
Further in the tunnel
we see columns...
and places
where the stone blocks
for the walls
were cut from
Here the tunnel
ends and we enter
the aqueduct

Timna

Far, far, far south, in the Southern Arava region of Israel (some 200 mi south from Jerusalem, 20 mi north from Eilat) there is a very beautiful place: Timna Park. It is a valley with many wonders of Nature and that of human history. This is a desert area, but there are several interesting minerals there (e.g. malachite and similar sources of cooper). Already 6000-7000 years ago all that region was an important center of cooper production.

Cooper ore
was dug		 e.g. here
and smelted
nearby

There are many traces of human activities in Timna, for instance this rock engraving      , but I was most impressed by what the Nature created there. Just look:

The Arches
Solomon's Pillars
 
The Mushroom the Mushroom and I

Eilat

At the very southern end of Israel, by the Gulf of Aqaba, there is a party town known by the name of Eilat. Hotels and various sea spas are a large part of this city:

The airfield is strangely located right between the hotels     but fortunately the air traffic is not very heavy.

Eilat is a port city, but the port here is not very big. Larger ships     go to the near port in Aqaba (in Jordan). However, one can see a lot of smaller ships in Eilat:

both floating
and rather unable to float

One of the places of interest in Eilat is Marine Park with the Underwater Observatory.

I spent lots of time
in the Observatory
watching the coral reef
and the fish
Also, I went for a trip
on the Coral 2000 boat		 Marine Park
(general view)

That's it for the moment. As I have already said, this is my last report from Jerusalem. At the moment I have no idea when the next report will be published and what it will contain.... Maybe in the last week of January 2007 I will put some note on my pages? Or maybe not. Best, Andrzej

PS: The Polish version of this report is available here.


[Back]   Return to the Report's Page
 
 

Last modified: Mon Dec 11 19:38:04 IST 2006