Centre
Central Israel covers Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and the coastal plain between them, a stretch packed with history. The posts here range from Caesarea on the coast through Bethlehem in the Judean Hills, the Jordan Valley, and Tel Aviv’s modern skyline. The geography is small but the historical and cultural concentration is hard to overstate.
37 articles
37 articles
Jaffa
A guided walk through ancient Jaffa: the clock tower, Andromeda’s rock, St Peter’s Church, the Bronze Age excavations, Napoleon’s campaign route and the Protestant cemetery with its surprise occupant.
The Road to Jerusalem in 1948
A field trip along the 1948 road to Jerusalem: the Masrek viewpoint over Shaar Hagay, the snow-covered Castel, the Kiriat Anavim cemetery for the Harel Brigade, the Yad Lashiryon Armoured Corps memorial at Latrun, and the Burma Road that finally broke the siege.
Jerusalem in the British Mandate Period
A day touring buildings of the British Mandate period in modern Jerusalem: the Hansen House lepers' home, the garden neighbourhoods of Talbiye and Rechavia, the Tomb of Jason, Yad Ben Zvi, the National Institutions Building, Ratisbonne Monastery and the original Betzalel.
Roman and Byzantine Jerusalem
A field-trip day tracing the Roman and Byzantine layers of Jerusalem: Zedekiah's Cave by the Damascus Gate, the arches at Alexander Nevsky, the Byzantine corners of the Holy Sepulchre, the cardo, and the ruins of the Nea Church.
Leaving the Old City walls of Jerusalem
A field trip outside the western Old City walls: the old train station, St Andrew's Church, the Montefiore windmill in Mishkenot Sha'ananim, Yemin Moshe, the King David Hotel and YMCA, Machane Yisrael, Nachalat Shiva and the Mamilla cemetery.
The European Powers in Jerusalem
A walking tour of Jerusalem outside the walls in the 19th century: Mahanaim House and St Paul's Church, the Italian Hospital, the Ethiopian Church, Tabor House and the legacy of Conrad Schick, Beit Ticho and Beit HaRav, the Russian Compound and the Museum of the Underground Prisoners.
The Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem
A walk through the modern history of the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City, visiting the Ramban, the Four Sephardi Synagogues, Tiferet Yisrael, the Karaite Centre and the Hurva, and closing at the memorial for those who fell in 1948.
Yad Vashem and Mt Herzl
A sombre day at Yad Vashem and the Holocaust History Museum, the surrounding memorials including the Valley of the Communities and the Children's Memorial, before heading up the hill to Mt Herzl cemetery and the Herzl Museum.
Jerusalem Institutions
A field trip around the institutions of Givat Ram in west Jerusalem: the Knesset menorah, the Knesset itself, the Supreme Court and a whistle-stop tour of the Israel Museum's archaeology wing.
Settlements of the Judean Coastal Plain
If you are going to Israel, you would be mad not to give him a call.
Amol Rajan, BBC presenter and broadcaster
Having been on trips in Israel with seven different tour guides, Samuel stood above all the rest.
Seasoned Israel traveller
Samuel is one part walking encyclopedia, one part storyteller, one part stand-up comedian.
Berkeley Haas Business School student