For a country small in size, Israel is extraordinarily rich in history and has been awarded World Heritage status for six extraordinary sites - with more than twenty others under consideration.
The holy city for Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Jerusalem was originally built by King David three thousand years ago and has held enormous symbolic significance to the world ever since. Today capital of the reborn State of Israel, its wide ramparts, seven gates, 34 towers, the citadel, its four residential quarters, the Western Wall, the Via Dolorosa, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Temple Mount, the Dome of the Rock, and over 200 other historic monuments are eternal landmarks that stand, incredibly, all within the confines of a mere square mile.
A 90-minute drive from Jerusalem, Masada is a rugged natural fortress of majestic beauty in the Judean Desert overlooking the Dead Sea. This is the site of the last stand of Jewish patriots facing the Roman army siege almost 2,100 years ago. It was built as a palace complex in the classic style of the early Roman Empire by Herod the Great, King of Judea, who reigned two thousand years ago. The camps, fortifications and assault ramps that encircle the monument constitute the most complete Roman siege works surviving to the present day.
20 minutes from Haifa, Israel's northernmost city, Akko is an historic walled port-city and was the original link between Egypt and Phoenicia over 4,000 years ago. Today one can see Ottoman 18th and 19th century iconic citadels, mosques, inns and baths. Capital of the medieval Crusader Kingdom from 1104 to 1291, much of medieval Akko, remarkably, exist today almost intact, both above and below street level. Akko provides an exceptional 'snap shot' of Crusader architecture.
Tel Aviv was founded in 1909 as a garden suburb of ancient Jaffa. Construction of the area known today as 'The White City' was begun in the early 1930‚s mostly by German-émigré architects who had studied Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe's 'functional aesthetic' at the Bauhaus in Dessau. Eventually called the 'International Style,' it is characterized by flat roofs, small horizontal windows, shade-providing columns, curved balconies, minimal ornamentation, reinforced concrete construction and white-washed exteriors. Today, Tel Aviv has the largest number of Bauhaus/International-style buildings of any city in the world.
The four ancient Nabatean towns of Haluza, Mamshit, Avdat and Shivta in the Negev Desert define the spice and incense routes that ran millennia ago from south Arabia to the Mediterranean Sea. These towns flourished for over 500 years until the second century. Today the remains and excavations of fortresses, sophisticated irrigation systems, forts, and inns bear witness to the way in which the harsh desert was settled for trade and agriculture.
A Tel is Hebrew for a pre- historic settlement mound - and Israel is home to more than two hundred. Those at Megiddo, Hazor and Beer Sheba are enormous outdoor treasuries of biblical artifacts. They present extraordinary examples of the dense urban community life in the Iron Age --fifteen centuries ago, complete with amazing details of the agriculture, water-collecting, government, commerce and domestic life thousands of years ago.
Additional sites in Israel nominated for coveted UNESCO World Heritage status are:
Tel Dan & Sources of the River Jordan
Early Synagogues in the Galilee
Sea of Galilee & its Ancient Sites
Israel‚s Baha‚i shrines
Bet She'an
Caesarea
White Mosque in Ramle
'Inconvenient truths' about our planet abound and we can no longer ignore the glaring fragility of the earth and its treasures. The protection thus conferred by UNESCO (the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization) to certain cultural/historic properties has become vitally important. UNESCO currently lists 830 properties world-wide that possess outstanding, universal 'World Heritage' value, each of which must be shielded from the ravages of over- commercialization, war, weather, and the terrible tyranny of time.
Other UNESCO World Heritage sites include: historic centers of cities such as Prague, Vienna, Dubrovnik, Venice, Florence and Paris, the great cathedrals and castles of France and Germany, the Vatican and Forum in Rome, the Acropolis in Athens, the city of Havana, the Medina of Marrakesh, the Taj Mahal, the Pyramids, Petra, the Great Wall of China, Stonehenge, the Statue of Liberty, the Grand Canyon...and Auschwitz.
For more information on visiting Israel, check web site www.rs6.net
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Elephants en route to Israel
Visitors to southern Israel will soon be able ride elephants in a park near Kibbutz Nahal Oz. Twenty to thirty females will be imported from Thailand to star in the new wildlife park now under construction.
This unique venture will anchor other tourism projects in the area, drawing more tourists to the beautiful open land of southern Israel. Modeled on a similar venture in Bali, the new park will replicate the Thai elephant's native habitat...astoundingly in the middle of the Negev desert!
To learn more about visiting Israel, check web site www.goisrael.com
The Egyptian Tourism Authority has unveiled a host of innovative new features on its international web site www.egypt.travel.
Mr Ahmed El Khadem, Chairman of the Egyptian Tourism Authority, commented: “Since launching just nine months ago we have welcomed a staggering 2.2 million visitors to www.egypt.travel. The latest enhancements are part of our ongoing efforts to provide visitors to Egypt with the best available advice and resources to help them make the most of their trip to our fascinating country.”
The newly revamped portal reflects the Egyptian Tourist Authority’s new branding, and features an updated layout with even more detailed content as well as extensive information on 15 key destinations. It also features a wealth of things to see and do, and has also been further enhanced with several unique interactive elements, including a new sound-enhanced Egyptian dictionary.
The online Arabic lexicon www.lexicon.egypt.travel enables travelers to learn some of the essential phrases and words used in day-to-day situations that they may encounter on a vacation to Egypt. Based on five different travel-themed scenarios – airport, taxi, hotel, restaurant and souk – the lexicon displays a series of images and audio dialogues which can also be downloaded (PDF and MP3) to allow for further practice.
Mr. El Khadem explained: “Our aim is to provide travellers with a one-stop online resource that not only features essential and useful destination information to travellers and trade alike, but also boasts innovative features to enhance the browsing experience still further.”
He added: “Through the newly added Arabic lexicon and our upcoming link-up with Google Earth, featuring satellite views of destinations and tourist sights, visitors can now begin their Egyptian adventure...before they go!”
Egypt was the first international tourist board to pioneer the new ‘travel’ domain name. In another industry first, the revamped web site now also enables children and adults alike to learn to communicate in the ancient language of the Pharaohs by sending their own E-cards - written in actual hieroglyphics - through web site www.hieroglyph.egypt.travel to friends and family who would then use the web site’s hieroglyph function to translate the card into modern languages.
In addition to the improved easy-to-use navigation system, users are also able to create their own personal bookmark at web site www.my.egypt.travel to download their favorite sections, enabling swift and direct access on subsequent visits. This function also enables users to generate a range of vacation ideas, such as sites to see and activities they would like to try, by selecting specific criteria such as “preferred activities”. This is complemented by the personalised My Travel notebook which allows visitors to save, download and share their favourite travel ideas. Guests can also print out these personalized travel options and take them to their preferred travel agent to get more information or to make a booking for when they visit Egypt.
Web site www.egypt.travel is currently available in six languages (soon in nine languages), with editorial content, photographs and news tailored for each language featuring alongside new services such as an internal search engine. The new automatic country and browser language detection functionalities also ensure that visitors are automatically directed to the correct language web site, based on the country from which a given visitor is accessing the site.
Launched in March 2006, web site www.egypt.travel continues to feature important travel information such as visa requirements and useful phone numbers to help visitors have an enjoyable stay in Egypt. Currently available in English, French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish, web site www.egypt.travel is one of the key initiatives of Egypt’s integrated marketing campaign. Entitled “Gift of the Sun”, the campaign is designed to double global visitor numbers from eight million in 2004, to reach 16 million by 2014.
A second dedicated website, www.trade.egypt.travel, which caters to the Travel and Tourism trade and press will also be re-launched’ in March 2007 following a complete revamp. The site is now offered to 18 different countries in 13 different languages, including all Scandinavian languages, Czech, and Polish.
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