Our luck was prevailing, and the rain was holding off at the critical moments. Nightline rain and daytime sunshine seemed to satisfy Israel’s need to replenish the watershed and our desire to see the country in the best light!
We headed to the northwestern corner of the country, adjacent to the Lebanon border, this morning to see the grottoes of Rosh Hanikra.
We stood in front of the gate at the Lebanon border crossing at the entrance to a military installation that includes: the Israeli Army and Navy, UN forces and the Lebanese Army. It was near this site that ill-fated transfer of detainees from the second Lebanon War in 2006 occurred: the bodies of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were returned in coffins.
The grottoes (sea caves) are steeped in history. These grottoes date to 323 B.C.E. and Alexander the Great. The cliff is at the foot of a chalk mountain range, which dips into the sea, creating a steep, white pillar, 70 meters high. It is often described as a white elephant’s trunk.
In the past, the only access to the grottoes was from the sea and experienced divers were the only ones capable of visiting. This rare beauty became accessible to the general public in 1968; when, a tunnel was excavated to the natural grottoes, slightly above the sea surface Today a cable car takes visitors down to see the grottoes. The ride takes about a minute in each direction and provides a panoramic view of the cliff and sea.
Documents and drawings of pilgrims show stairways carved into the rock, facilitating the passage of caravans. The first road accessible to motor vehicles was cut by the British Army during World War One. At the time of the British Mandate in Palestine, a road was laid for commercial and private use. It has since been closed off, but there are tunnels to the north and south carved out that could connect Damascus and Cairo.
Throughout human history, Rosh Hanikra served as point of passage for trading caravans and armies between Lebanon, Syria - the northern cultures - and Israel, Egypt, Africa - the southern cultures. Of current interest is the accord that existed between Israel, Egypt and Jordan, allowing free travel between the countries, is no longer in existence. The reneging of the pact no longer allows free travel to Israel.
The labyrinth of tunnels in the cave was formed by sea action of waves lapping on the soft chalk rock. The total length of Rosh Hanikra grottoes is some 200 meters. They branch off in various directions with some interconnecting segments. The season of the year and time of day greatly alter the grottoes’ appearance.
The caves are wet and it was slick walking; a handrail provided a bit of security. The caution of the moment was “watch the waves”. Soon after snapping this picture of Gail, the next wave soaked them all.
Oops! If the water isn’t coming from the sky, it’s coming from the sea. The strange sounds the waves make as they rush in and out of the caves make it easy to believe the old legend that a pair of star-crossed lovers used to meet here, and the voice of the would-be bride can still be heard.
Just south of Rosh Hanikra, the city of Acre/Akko is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, dating back to the time of the Pharaoh Thutmose III (1504-1450 BCE). A part of the kingdom of Israel, Acre was incorporated into the empire of Alexander the Great after his conquest in 332 B.C.E. Through subsequent takeovers, and various names, confusion over what to call the city was compounded by the Crusaders' conquest in 1104, after which it became known as St. Jean d'Acre, or Acre for short.
Akko is also a city rich in history, with a focus on the Crusaders. (My knowledge of Crusader history is sorely lacking.) The Crusaders were literally wiped out by the Mamluks in the late 1200’s. With this major event, Acre ceased to be a major city for almost 500 years. When a Bedouin sheikh carved a small fiefdom out of the Ottoman Empire in the mid-18th century, he made Acre his capital and built a large fortress.
The fortress was later fortified by the Turkish governor (1775-1804); the mosque al-Jazzer built is one of the most beautiful in Israel and the most distinctive building in the old city.
Acre fell under Ottoman control until the Turks were defeated in 1918 by the British. The city then became part of the British Mandate for Palestine. The British used the ancient fortress, which had never been breached, as a high-security prison to hold (and execute) members of the various Jewish underground groups. On May 4, 1947, members of the Irgun staged a dramatic rescue (dramatized in the film Exodus). Though few Jews escaped, the audacity of the raid was a serious blow to British prestige and a tremendous boost for the morale of the Jews. Today, the fort is the site of the Underground Prisoners Memorial Museum, which depicts the history of Acre and the prison.
On May 17, 1948, shortly after the Arab invasion, Israeli troops took control of Acre and most of the Arab inhabitants fled. It was subsequently incorporated into Israel after the War of Independence.
The clock tower was built in 1906 in honor of the Turkish sultan Abdul Hamid. (Remember the clock tower in Jaffa?)
One of the more spectacular rooms in the subterranean Crusader city is the Knights' Halls, which were used as a fortress more than 700 years ago. Today, the main hall is used for concerts. The lowest level is the Crypt, a great hall that may have been used for great ceremonies by the Crusaders is a focal point for the annual Akko Performance Art Festival.
Today, the population of Akko is approximately 40,000 and has one of the higher proportions of non-Jews of any of Israel's cities, with roughly 25 percent Christians, Muslims, Druze and Baha'is. The city is a magnet for tourists and the home of the country's steel industry.
Lunch near the Akko market was fabulous hummus with whole chickpeas at the only restaurant owned by women in a predominantly Arab market. Gail and I were checking out what other people were eating as we found our seats.
We struck up conversation with a couple, only to find out that Jonathan lives in Allentown, PA. He asked me if I noticed his car with the PA license plate outside. Of course, this was a Kodak moment! Jonathan gave me a hot tip for a restaurant in Philadelphia. This lunch: Israeli salad and hummus still resonates in my taste buds!
Our next stop was the Kinneret Cemetery. This is the site of the graves of the founders of Moshava Kinneret and Kibbutz Kinneret - the early 20th-century leaders of socialist Zionism. Among the many well-known figures buried here are the poet Rachel, songwriter Naomi Shemer, Zionist labor leader Berl Katznelson and many others it is a "sacred" place to most Israelis, on the hills overlooking Lake Kinneret. The Kinneret is an atypical Jewish cemetery as the pioneers wanted to re‐define “Jewish”.
Rachel (1890 - 1931, b. Vyatka, Russia) published all her poetry under her first name only. She arrived in Eretz Israel in 1909, and lived in an agricultural school for girls on the shores of the Sea of Galilee until 1913. While studying in France, the outbreak World War I necessitated a return to Russia, where she contracted tuberculosis. In 1919, she returned to live on Kibbutz Degania. Unable to work with children because of her illness, she left the kibbutz and settled in a lonely one-room apartment in Tel Aviv, where she lived the final five years of her life. She died at the age of forty, and was buried near the Sea of Galilee. She published most of her poetry during her last six years. Her life has taken on mythic proportions for Israel’s reading public and a volume of her collected verse remains one of the country’s greatest bestsellers. Some of her best-known verse expresses love for Eretz Israel and nostalgia for the Sea of Galilee.
Naomi Shemer (1930 - 2004) was one of Israel's most important and prolific songwriters, considered by some "the First Lady of Israeli Song". Shemer wrote both words and lyrics to her own songs, composed music to words by others (such as the poet Rahel), and set Hebrew words to internationally known tunes (such as "Hey Jude" by the Beatles); she has probably made more lasting contributions to Israeli song than any other single songwriter. Due to her virtuosic use of language, Shemer has also been called a poet, though her published writing was always set to music. Naomi Shemer was born and raised in Kinneret, a kibbutz on the shore of Sea of Galilee (where Rahel the poet lived), of which her parents were founders.
Julian’s stories on the lives of other lesser-known pioneers scream to be put into print. He declined the request to become the author. I wasn’t taking notes at the time and regret that I did not have a tape recorder.
The grave of this baby (Lotan Huff) is the unfortunate tale of the young pioneers. The baby died because his young mother did not know what to feed him after she stopped breastfeeding. Because there were no elders to lend advice, the pioneers struggled to manage on their own. This baby was a relative of the wealthy Rothschild family.
This marker belongs to a young man named Borkahv, who feeling that he had failed his parents, made aliyah as a pioneer in Israel. When he experienced difficult times in his new homeland, he took his own life He could not bear to have failed a second time. The marker of this 17 year old indicates that “he lost his ability to make a decision”, which is the terminology that allows him to be buried in a Jewish cemetery.
Our minds were overflowing with knowledge and history; the next stop would be a place for the intrepid, weary travelers.
Hammat Gader is a Roman/Byzantine thermal complex, and a modern therapeutic and resort center on the north bank of the Yarmuk River, between the Golan Heights and Gilad mountains. Its geological structure and volcanic history produced the hot and mineral springs that make the site so special. In the area there are 5 springs, one cold mineral spring and 4 hot springs, ranging from 125 degrees and down to 85 degrees (F).
Although the area is also steeped in history, this was an evening plunge into some very smelly sulfur springs to soothe the body. We skipped the history lesson! We may have stayed too long soaking in the warmth of the water; Julian had to call the Guest House and let them know we were running late for dinner!
And the adventure continues…
Next stop was Abu Gosh, an Israeli Arab town located about 5 miles west of Jerusalem. We were going for lunch; the house specialty is lamb, and it became a feast for the carnivore cousins. It was goood! The little salad plates were seemingly endless. A picture is worth a thousand words.
The Kotel was the next stop – I had spent a fair amount of time at the wall in the past few weeks: sometimes sleeping and sometimes awake. I had a special prayer to leave at the wall for my friend Doris Cochran-Fikes, who would be having major surgery in the middle of April. Gail had to reach high to find a crevice for family pictures of Marj and Hank and our grandparents.
