Israel and Jordan

I visited Israel and Jordan from August 20, 2023 to September 7, 2023. We now all know what happened on Oct 7, 2023. I was very very lucky! I felt nervous even before I begun my trip. The days I spent in Israel were peaceful and safe. There is no violence nor police-presence. Many IDF soldiers, twenty or more men and women in uniforms, were carrying out military exercise and coming to restaurants during lunch time. Didn’t feel very comfortable to have lunch together with soldiers carrying semi-automatic rifles with real bullets. However my nervousness gradually went away as I started touring. I used Tel Aviv as my base because it has an international airport with direct flights to the USA. Jerusalem doesn’t have an international airport and Jerusalem Old Town is very congested. I took day trips to visit different places from Tel Aviv as Israel is a very small country.

Jerusalem Old City – Tiny Group Tour

This intimate tiny tour had only three participants. We walked the Jerusalem Old Town and fielded many questions to the tour guide. We spent about a hour at Western Wall (Wailing Wall), walked the Way of the Cross (Via Dolorosa) where Jesus walked in his final hours, and the Golgotha where Jesus was crucified and saw the Edikula structure –the location of the Tomb where Jesus was buried and resurrected. We also visited the Mahane Yehuda Market (the Shuk), the Armenian quarter, the Muslim quarter, the Jewish quarter and the Christian quarter. At the Muslim quarter saw one of the holiest places to the Moslem people –the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque. We learnt a lot about Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Bethlehem, Jericho, and Jordan River Tour

Christian tradition has identified Bethlehem as the birthplace of Jesus, specifically at the location now stands The Church of the Nativity. The first church was built in 339 CE, and the current building was built after a fire in the 6th century. It is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Jericho is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, located in the Jordan Valley, with the Jordan River to the east and Jerusalem to the west. Jericho is among the oldest cities in the world, and it is also the city with the oldest known defensive wall. Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of more than 20 successive settlements in Jericho, the first of which dates back 11,000 years. Copious springs in and around the city have attracted human habitation for thousands of years. Jericho is described in the Bible as the “city of palm trees”. The date palm trees were planted thousands of years ago. Jericho is in the shadow of the Mount of Temptation. We ascended to the Mount of Temptation Monastery and enjoyed the breathtaking views of Jordan Valley.

We continued to the Baptism Site Qasr el Yehud at the Jordan River, where according to believe Jesus was baptized.

West Bank Tour

The West Bank remains central to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The tour is very interesting and provide me a good sense about the conflict. The tour guide is of course a Israeli so we only received the story based on Israeli explanation. The tour guide tried to balance off and described the living conditions of Palestinians in West Bank. We can actually see how Palestinians live in the West Bank. We visited Ramallah, the administrative center of the Palestine authority. Life at Ramallah is peaceful and fine. However Israelis have put so much restrictions on Palestinians’ travel. The Walls Israelis erected around the West Banks are the tallest I have ever seen in my life. Jobs are hard to come by for the Palestinians. They earn 1/4 of what Israelis earn for the same job. They are like the illegal immigrants on their own land.

Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee Tour

Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee have some of Israel’s most important Christian sites. You’ll follow the path of Jesus and the apostles as you visit places where Jesus is believed to have been born, taught, performed miracles, and been baptized. All these sites are described in New Testament. Don’t mistake the Sea of Galilee is a salt water ocean, it is actually the lowest freshwater lake on Earth.

Masada, Ein Gedi and The Dead Sea Tour

Masada is an ancient fortress on the southwestern coast of the Dead Sea in Israel. Masada is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Masada is important to Jewish people because according to Josephus, the siege of Masada by Roman troops from 72 to 73 AD, at the end of the First Jewish–Roman War, ended in the mass suicide of the 960 Sicarii rebels who were hiding there. In modern times, the story of the siege was revived as the Masada myth. The mythical narrative became a national symbol in the early years of Israel’s nationhood. It represented the heart and soul of Israeli’s rebirth after 2000 years. All Israeli school kids are brought here for national pride education.

Caesarea, Rosh Hanikra and Acre Tour

Caesarea is an ancient and medieval port city on the coast of the eastern Mediterranean, and later a small fishing village. It was the capital of Roman Judaea, Syria Palaestina and Palaestina Prima, successively, for a period of c. 650 years and a major intellectual hub of the Mediterranean. Today, the site is part of the Caesarea National Park, on the western edge of the Sharon plain in Occupied Palestine.

Rosh HaNikra is a grotto, a geologic formation on the border between Israel and Lebanon, located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, in the Western Galilee. It is a white chalk cliff face which opens up into spectacular grottos.

Acre is a city in the coastal plain region of the Northern District of Israel. The city occupies a strategic location, sitting in a natural harbor at the extremity of Haifa Bay on the coast of the Mediterranean’s Levantine Sea. It is among the oldest continuously inhabited settlements on Earth. It has, however, been subject to conquest and destruction several times and survived as little more than a large village for centuries at a time.

Golan Heights Tour

We have heard a lot about Golan Heights in Israeli’s wars against its neighbors. The Golan Heights is a plateau between Syria and Israel with highest point at 7297 ft. Two thirds of the area has been occupied by Israel following the 1967 Six-Day War and then effectively annexed in 1981 – an action unrecognized by the international community, which continues to consider it Israeli-occupied Syrian territory. Golan Heights is extremely critical to Israelis. It services as a military buffer between Israel and Syria. It is also an important water source. 2/3 of Israeli’s water is coming from the snow melting of the Golan Heights, which feeds into the Sea of Galilee. Construction of Israeli settlements began in the territory held by Israel, which was under a military administration until the Knesset passed the Golan Heights Law in 1981, which applied Israeli law to the territory. Today, there are many Israeli settlers engaging in agriculture, cattle farming, and vineyards and winery on the land. At the view point on Golan Heights, I can see into Syria which is only a few miles away. There are Israeli settlements next to the Israeli and Syria “border”. Any time there is a conflict, the settlements will be shelled by bombs come Syria and Lebanon Hezbollah.

Haifa (Bahai Gardens)

Haifa is an important sea port in Israel and the third largest city after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. It is home to the Bahai Faith’s Bahai World Centre, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a destination for Bahai pilgrimage. The Bahai Faith is a monotheistic religion founded in the 19th century that teaches the essential worth of all religions and the unity of all people. Established by Baháʼu’lláh, it initially developed in Iran and parts of the Middle East, where it has faced ongoing persecution since its inception. The religion is estimated to have approximately 8 million adherents (known as Baháʼís) as of 2024, spread throughout most of the world’s countries and territories. The main tourist attraction in Haifa is the Hanging Gardens of Haifa. Completed in 2001, there are 19 terraces and more than 1,500 steps ascending the mountain. The central terrace has the Shrine of the Báb, one of the main religious sites of the Baháʼí Faith. The terraces are part of a complex of Baháʼí holy places in Haifa, Acre, and western Galilee that were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in July 2008.

Tel Aviv City

The City of Tel Aviv itself has some interesting sights worth one day of your time. I used the free Sandemans New Tel Aviv Tour which covers Jaffa Clock Tower, Mahmoudiya Mosque, Zodiac Alleyways, Floating Orange Tree, Jaffa Art Galleries, St. Peter’s Church, Simon the Tanner’s house, and Jaffa Port. I have found Sandemans has free tours in many European cities you can take advantage of. Jaffa was an old fishing village. Israelis built the new city Tel Aviv next to it. Jaffa actually has a long history to explore. Simon the Tanner’s house in old Jaffa is recorded in the Bible. After the free tour of Jaffa, you can take a walk on Tel Aviv beaches along the Mediterranean.

I took a taxi to Park HaTachana, then walked around Tel Aviv neighborhood Neve Tzedek and shopped along Rothschild Blvd. Tel Aviv also has some Art Deco buildings built by returning Jews from Europe. The locals call the Art Deco area as “White City”. The buildings are located on Sheinkin Street, Bialik Square, and the Old Town Hall of Tel Aviv.

Tel Aviv Museum of Art is worth a visit if time permits. There are art works by locals as well as a few paintings by Raphael and other world famous painters. The quality of those paintings are not very good. You can skip it if you don’t have time.

2 Day Petra Tour (Jordan)

A visit to Petra has been high on my bucket list. Petra is about four hours away from Tel Aviv. I took a Petra 2 Days tour from Tel Aviv. The tour operator picked me up at 6:30am and brought me back by 9pm next day.

Petra is a historic and archaeological city in southern Jordan, famous for its rock-cut architecture and water conduit systems. Petra is also called the “Rose City” because of the color of the sandstone from which it is carved. The city is one of the New 7 Wonders of the World and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The area around Petra has been inhabited from as early as 7000 BC, and was settled by the Nabataeans, a nomadic Arab people, in the 4th century BC. Petra would later become the capital city of the Nabataean Kingdom in the second century BC. The Nabataeans invested in Petra’s proximity to the incense trade routes by establishing it as a major regional trading hub, which gained them considerable revenue. Unlike their enemies, the Nabataeans were accustomed to living in the barren deserts and thus were able to defend their kingdom. Petra was purposely built in a sandstone canyon with narrow entrance so Nabataeans can easily defend it. They were particularly skillful in agriculture, stone carving, and rainwater harvesting.

Petra flourished in the 1st century AD, when its Al-Khazneh structure, possibly the mausoleum of Nabataean king Aretas IV, was constructed, and its population peaked at an estimated 20,000 inhabitants. Nabataea fell to the Romans in 106 AD, who annexed and renamed it as Arabia Petraea. Petra’s importance declined as sea trade routes emerged, and after an earthquake in 363 AD destroyed many structures. In the Byzantine era, several Christian churches were built, but the city continued to decline and, by the early Islamic era, it was abandoned except for a handful of nomads. It remained unknown to the western world until 1812, when Swiss traveller Johann Ludwig Burckhardt rediscovered it.

UNESCO has described Petra as “one of the most precious cultural properties of man’s cultural heritage”. Petra is a symbol of Jordan, as well as Jordan’s most-visited tourist attraction. Visitor numbers reach close to a million tourists every year.