Herod
Herod the Great’s building programme left fortresses, harbours, and palaces scattered across the country in the late first century BCE. Posts here cover Herodion, the artificial cone-shaped fortress and burial site south of Bethlehem, alongside the Herodian remains along the road down to Jericho in the northern Judean Desert.
14 articles
14 articles
Tiberias
A day in Tiberias, one of Judaism's four holy cities: the Sapir Station of the national water carrier, Ottoman ruins from Daher el-Omar's era, Roman and Byzantine remains, and the ancient synagogues of Hammat Tiberias.
Campus Golan Day 2: the Lower Hermon and the Northern Golan Heights
Day 2 of our Golan Heights course: Tel Dan's salamander, the world's oldest arch, the Hellenist temple at Banias, the Yom Kippur battlefields at Mt Bental and the Valley of Tears, and a kumzitz to close.
South Mount Hebron
Returning from glandular fever for a complex field-trip to the South Hebron Hills: the Cave of Machpela, Tel Rumeida, the Byzantine ruins of Susya and Anim, and the illegal outpost at Avigail. Politics unavoidable, the day deeply absorbing.
Northern Judean Desert
First trip of the guiding course took us down into the northern Judean Desert, from the Inn of the Good Samaritan and the Wadi Kelt viewpoint to Einot Tzukim, Qumran and Nabi Musa. Twelve hours, eight sites, plenty of Hebrew vocabulary added to the lexicon.
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