ISRAEL TOURISM
March 2024
years, Sufi centers have been reopened and the movement is flourishing again in Israel. The Sufi center Zawayat El- Shadlia, in the old city of Acre (Akko), was established in 1862 and for years served as the world center of the Shadli Sufi order. Later, the spiritual center of the order moved to Lebanon, but in recent years, the center in Acre has been undergoing extensive renovation works aimed to put Acre once again at the spiritual center of the mystical order. The appearance of the building from the outside does not hint at the grandeur and splendor inside: A spectacular dome, colorful marble columns, carpets and works of art and gardens with Andalusian-style pools and fountains are only part of what is hidden inside the blue-domed stone structure. And more than what the eyes see, it is fascinating to get to know the spiritual and mysterious side of the Sufi faith. 5 The Ethiopian monastery above the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Jerusalem The Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem is one of the most important churches in the world, because according to Christian belief, Jesus was buried there after being taken down from the cross and from this tomb he was resurrected. But not everyone knows
The pyramid in the ruins of Madras
that on the roof of the church’s Saint Helena chapel, in the place considered to be the ninth station of the path of torment, lives a tiny compound of Ethiopian monks. Designed as an Ethiopian village, the monastery rooms are built of clay, painted in bright colors and furnished ascetically. During the Crusader period, the roof of the church was used as a dining hall for knights, but the ceiling of the hall did not survive and only the remains of the columns and arches testify to the splendor that was once here. In 1760, the Ethiopian church took over the ruins, but since the place belonged to the Coptic church before that, there has been a dispute over the ownership of the area ever since. The monastery returned to the Copts in 1830, while the Ethiopians returned
and took control of it after the Six Day War in 1967. Today, Ethiopian monks lead an ascetic communal life there. 6 Jerusalem Water Channel Just under the streets of the Old City of Jerusalem, there is a branching system of tunnels built as drainage canals at the end of the Second Temple period in the beginning of the common era. They were later used for hiding during the Great Revolt of the Jews against the Romans. One of the most important tunnels is the drainage canal in the City of David, located under the main paved street that crosses Jerusalem, from the Western Wall in the north to the Shiloh Pool in the City of David in the south. The height of the canal reaches up to three meters in some places, so that you
could walk in it with your head upright, and it is about a meter wide. The channel was built to drain rainwater so that it would not disturb the many residents and pilgrims who came to Jerusalem and walked on the paved street right above the channel. During the Great Rebellion, many rebels found refuge in the canal and some of them lived there until they escaped outside the city. 7 Hidden caves in the Judean Lowlands The rebels who hid in
the drainage channel in Jerusalem were not the first, nor the last, to hide underground. Caves have
always been an excellent hiding place, and in Israel many such caves were common in the Judean Lowlands, thanks to the white soft chalk rock that characterizes the area and
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