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Herzl Museum
The history of the Zionist dream is detailed in the Herzl Museum, a multimedia journey into the life of Theodor Herzl, the father of modern Zionism. A one-hour guided tour in various languages including English tells Herzl’s story; advance bookings are essential. Herzls quest began
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Maine Friendship House
The first neighbourhood outside Jaffas city walls, the American Colony was established by a group of American Christians in the 1860s. The story of their star-crossed (some would say hare-brained) settlement scheme is told at the engaging Maine Friendship House museum. The colony a
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Nahla’ot
Founded in the 1860s, this neighbourhood south of the Mahane Yehuda Market is a warren of narrow alleys where a number of old synagogues and yeshivas (Jewish religious seminaries) are hidden, many set in large stone-walled compounds. The most interesting street is HaGilboa, where y
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Room of the Last Supper
Considered to be the one of the most holy places in the Christian world (up there with the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem), this austere and somewhat underwhelming space was part of the Holy Zion church built in 390 CE. Retained in the 14th
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Ethiopian Monastery
Sequestered on the rooftop of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, this monastery houses a few monks from the Church of Ethiopia who live among the ruins of a medieval cloister erected by the Crusaders. The cupola in the middle of the roof section admits light to St Helena’s crypt bel
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Al
The name Al-Aqsa means ‘farthest mosque’ and is in reference to the journey Mohammed is believed to have made on his way to heaven to receive instructions from Allah. While the Dome of the Rock serves more as a shrine than a mosque, Al-Aqsa is a functioning house of worship, accomm
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Cardo Maximus
Cutting a broad north–south swath, the sunken Cardo Maximus is the reconstructed main street of Roman and Byzantine Jerusalem. At one time it would have run the whole breadth of the city, up to what’s now Damascus Gate, but in its present form it starts just south of David St, the
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Belvoir
Set on a hilltop 550m above the Jordan River, this Crusader fortress, measuring an impressive 110m by 110m, consists of concentric ramparts, gates, courtyards and towers that afford spectacular views of the Jordan and Jezreel Valleys and Jordan’s Gilead Mountains. Highlights includ
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Garden Tomb
A tranquil patch of green in the middle of East Jerusalems mayhem, this site is considered by its trustees to be both the garden and sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea, and the place where Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected. While enjoying little support for their claims, th
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Church & Monastery of the Dormition
One of Jerusalems most recognisable landmarks, this mosaic-laden church occupies the site traditionally thought to be where the Virgin Mary died (the word dormition means a peaceful or painless death). Its Latin name is Dormitio Sanctae Mariae (Sleep of Holy Mary). The current chur
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Tabgha
Two Catholic churches a few hundred metres apart occupy the stretch of Sea of Galilee lakefront known as Tabgha (an Arabic corruption of the Greek hepta pega, meaning ‘seven springs’). An attractive walkway links Tabgha with Capernaum, a distance of about 3km. The austere, German B
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Jerusalem Archaeological Park & Davidson Centre
Offering a peek into the history of the Temple Mount area, this archaeological site near Dung Gate incorporates the remains of streets, columns, gates, walls, plazas and mikvehs exposed during archaeological digs in the 1970s. Theres also a modern visitor centre where two video pre
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Atlit Illegal Immigrant Detention Camp
In 1939, as the situation of the Jews of Europe became increasingly dire, the British government issued a white paper limiting Jewish immigration to Palestine to 10,000 to 15,000 certificates a year. If Jewish refugees could not come to Palestine legally, the leaders of the Zionist
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Tel Dan Nature Reserve
This half-square-kilometre reserve, 1.6km north of Rte 99, boasts two major attractions. The first, an area of lush forests, is fed by year-round springs that normally gush eight cubic metres of water per second into the Dan River, the most important tributary of the Jordan. The se
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Beit She’arim
An ancient Jewish town and later a necropolis, Beit She’arim is now a shady park and a prime destination for visitors interested in the early years of rabbinic (post-Temple) Judaism. For part of the late 2nd century CE, Beit She’arim was the meeting place of the Sanhedrin (the eras
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Gamla
The site of a thriving Jewish village during the late Second Temple period, Gamla – perched atop a rocky ridge shaped like a camel’s back (gamla is the Aramaic word for camel) – dared to defy the Romans during the Great Jewish Revolt (66–70 CE) and as a result was besieged by Vespa
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Rabban Yokhanan Ben Zakai Synagogues
Named after a renowned 1st century CE tanna (scholar-judge), the four Sephardi synagogues in this complex have very different histories and decoration. The two oldest date from the late 16th century and all four were in ruins before being restored between 1967 and 1972. With their
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Hezekiahs Tunnel
This 500m-long underground passage of waist-deep water ends at the Pool of Siloam, where it is said that a blind man was healed after Jesus told him to wash in it. The purpose of the tunnel was to channel water flowing from the Gihon Spring, a temperamental source that acts like a
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Masada
After the Romans conquered Jerusalem in 70 CE, almost a thousand Jews – men, women and children – made a desperate last stand atop Masada, a desert mesa surrounded by sheer cliffs and, from 72 CE, the might of the Roman Empire’s Tenth Legion. As a Roman battering ram was about to b
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Capernaum
The New Testament relates that the prosperous lakeside village of Capernaum (estimated population 1500), on the imperial highway from Tiberias to Damascus, was Jesus’s base during the most influential period of his Galilean ministry (Matthew 4:13, Mark 2:1, John 6:59). It is mentio
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