1st Day – Ben Gurion Airport / Tel Aviv
Arrival to Ben Gurion Airport. Assistance by Your guide and transfer to the hotel.
Dinner & overnight at Tel Aviv/Netanya.
2nd Day – Jaffa / Haifa / Acre
Start the day with a visit to Old Jaffa.
Then to Caesarea maritime, visit the amphitheater, the Roman, Byzantine, and Crusader city, the water aqua duct.
Then continue to Haifa, the history of Haifa dates back to the 3rd century CE. Since then it has been controlled by several civilizations, including the Canaanites, Israelites, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Crusaders, Kurds, the Mamluks, the Ottoman Turks and it is currently a major city in Israel. Today, it is a mixed city of Jews and Arab citizens of Israel.
Visit Haifa, view the port, the Bahai shrine and gardens.
Visit to Acre/Akko, Akko is one of the oldest cities in Israel. It was established over 4,000 years ago.
Over the millennia it has been controlled by many different ruling countries because of its strategic location. Most notably today is has the remains of an ancient crusader fortress. Here you will be able to wander through the maze of dark narrow tunnels and enjoy this beautiful Mediterranean city.
Dinner and overnight at Tiberias/Nazareth.
3rd Day – Katzrin / Golan heights / Banias
Migdal where we will also see the remains of a 2000 year old fishing boat.
Continue to Katzrin is a modern day town as well as a reconstruction of an ancient Jewish village. This town is located in the tribal area of Manasseh. In 1967 archeologists uncovered a synagogue from the 4th-5th centuries that you can see restored today along with many other buildings and implements. Drive to the Golan Heights, the Greeks referred to this area as ”Gaulanitis.” During the millennia this area has changed hands a number of times, but since 1967 this area belongs to Israel. Today the Golan Heights is mainly an agricultural area. Banias, Caesarea Philippi, Also known as Banias. The Romans renamed the city Caesarea Philippi in honor of Augustus Caesar. Caesarea Philippi is located at the foot of Mt. Hermon. The most notable scripture reference to this location is found in Matthew 16:13 where Jesus says to Peter, “…you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” Today you can see the remains of ancient pagan worship and the Banias spring which is one of the three sources of the Jordan River.
Dinner & overnight in Nazareth or Tiberias.
4th Day – BET SHEAN / DEAD SEA
After breakfast, take a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee.
Kibbutz experience, visit a local Kibbutz with a member of the Kibbutz, enjoy the stories of the life in the community.
Bet Sh’ean – an ancient city with a glorious past. King Saul and his sons, who lost the battle against the Philistines at nearby Mount Gilboa, where hung from Bet She’an’s city walls. During the Greco-Roman period, the city was known as Scythopolis. Bet She’an is one of most prominent archeological sites, with a major Roman theater, the Roman Byzantine Cardo, giants’ columns, shops, mosaics and yet to be excavated tel.
Then continue thru the Jordan Valley to the Dead Sea.
Dinner & Overnight at the Dead Sea.
5th Day – JERICHO/ EIN GEDI / MASSADA /
Visit Jericho, the oldest city in the world, the 1st city conquered by Joshua and the Children of Israel upon their return from Egypt. Remains from the time of King Ahab, include a stone tower and stone wall.
Visit Qumran, This is the area where the Essences wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were discovered in a cave here in 1947 after 2000 years.
Enjoy at a Dead Sea beach, the lowest point on Earth, 400 meters below sea level. Dive in its waters containing more than 30% of salt and minerals.
Ein Gedi, Oasis on the shore of the Dead Sea. Efficient irrigation system. Mosaic Synagogue.
Then drive to Masada. Ascend and descent by cable car. Visit the Herodian fortress overlooking the Dead Sea, its palaces, the thermal baths, the warehouses...
Masada was the last resistance point of the Zelots against the Romans during the Great Rebellion in 70 AD culminating in mass suicide. See the site remains that prove this tragic event.
Diner & Overnight at the Dead Sea.
6th Day – ARAD/ MITZPE RAMON/ NEGEV/ BEERSHEBA
Arad, this is the site of the ancient tel in the northern Negev. It includes remains from the early Canaanite period.
Mitzpe Ramon, on the edge of the Ramon crater, at a height of some 300 meters above it, sits the town of Mitspe Ramon. This pleasant, quiet town, built in the landscape of the largest of the Negev craters, between paths and cliffs, mountains and springs, has recently become a thriving tourism town.
Beersheba, Important city of the Neguev since biblical times. Tel Beersheba is northeast of the modern town, with the remains of a fortress and the main city drain that led toward the gate.
Dinner & overnight at Beersheba.
7th Day – JERUSALEM
Drive to Jerusalem.
Mount Scopus has been strategically important as a base from which to attack the city since antiquity. A Roman Legion camped there in 66 AD.[1] Again in 70 AD Mount Scopus was used as a base to carry out a siege of the city by the 12th, 15th and 5th Legions.
Mount of Olives, The southern part of the Mount was the necropolis of the ancient Judean kingdom.[2] The Mount is central to Jewish tradition since it has been used as a Jewish cemetery for over 3,000 years and holds approximately 150,000 graves.[3] Several key events in the life of Jesus as related in the Gospels took place on the Mount of Olives, and in the Book of Acts it is described as the place from which Jesus ascended to heaven.
City of David, the oldest settled neighborhood of Jerusalem and a major archaeological site. It is on a narrow ridge running south from the Temple Mount in the predominantly Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem.
Silwan, is an ancient site in Jerusalem, located in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, south of the Old City. According to the Hebrew Bible, Siloam was built around the "serpent-stone", Zoheleth, where Adonijah gave his feast in the time of Solomon. It is the site of the Pool of Siloam and the Tower of Siloam.
Visit the Wailing Wall and the Temple Mont.
Diner & overnight at Jerusalem.
8th Day, JERUSALEM
Visit to the Holocaust Memorial Yad Vashem.
Pass by the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, the Menorah - the Candlestick and the Palace of Justice.
Visit the Israel Museum and the Shrine of the Book where the famous Dead Sea Scrolls are exposed. Visit the Jerusalem model representing the city at the time of the 2nd Temple period.
Sanehdriya, investigator of the Holy Land identified at the thirteen century the burial caves in the north of Jerusalem. It has been told that seventy people from the big Sanhedrin were buried in this area.
Diner & overnight at Jerusalem.
9th Day – TEL AVIV
Morning free for shopping.
Transfer to the Ben Gurion Airport for return flight.
