Israel is not only a holiday at first-class resorts, but first of all a pilgrimage to the Holy Places of many religions.
The peculiarity of tourist Israel is that there is a huge number of historical and natural monuments here. About the main sights of Israel we will tell in this article.
Contents:
- The tomb of King David. Fortress of Masada.
- The Al-Aqsa Mosque
- The Dead Sea
- The Wailing Wall.
The tomb of King David.
Located on Mount Sion, the tomb, starting from around the 12th century, is considered to be the burial place of the legendary biblical character of King David. This is one of the most memorable figures of the Old Testament, representing the ideal of the ruler, of whose kind the Messiah Jesus Christ himself is going. To him, the usual shepherd, the prophet Samuel himself was destined to become the king of Israel and unite the state of Israel. He was an excellent poet and musician, a great warrior who defeated the giant Goliath and the wisest of all kings. David turned Jerusalem into a major prosperous city and declared it to be the sole and main religious center of the Jews. At the same time the king of Israel stretched from the Sinai peninsula to the Euphrates river. Died at the age of 72 years, the king was buried in Jerusalem, also called "the city of David."Disputes about the place of his burial go until now, but most historians believe the most likely place is this tomb on Mount Zion. Fortress of Masada.
An ancient fortress, located near the city of Arad, is famous for the fact that King Herod the Great himself built an outpost here for himself and his associates. The fortress is located on the top of one of the rocks in the Judean Desert. On all sides Massada is surrounded by high cliffs and only from the sea there leads a narrow path, called "snake path".However, this does not give tourists any problems, because they have a special cable car.
The fortress is built on a territory 600 meters long and 300 meters wide. Throughout the perimeter, it was surrounded by fortified walls about one and a half kilometers long and 4 meters thick. Near the perimeter of the fortress walls were installed about 40 watchtowers. On the territory of the fortress there were a royal palace, a synagogue, barracks, stables. Here the treasury of King Herod was kept.
Al-Aqsa Mosque
The Al-Aqsa mosque erected in Jerusalem on the territory of the Temple Mount is the third most important shrine of the Islamic world( after Mecca and Medina).According to legend, it was from here that the Prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven after his famous journey of their Mecca to Jerusalem. The mosque was built in the middle of the 8th century by the caliphs of their Umayyad dynasty and subsequently rebuilt several times. In 1099, the crusaders, who conquered Jerusalem, converted the mosque into a church and arranged here also the palace of the ruler and the stables. The mosque was again restored after the conquest of the city in the late 12th century by Saladdin. Subsequently, Al-Aqsa was rebuilt several times by the Ayyubids, the Mamluks and the Ottomans.
Dimensions of the mosque are also impressive: more than 80 meters in length and about 60 in width. At the same time, 5 thousand people can pray in it. The dome of the mosque is covered with gold, the columns are carved out of marble, the walls are decorated with a beautiful ornate Arab mosaic.
Dead Sea
The Dead Sea is perhaps the most famous place in Israel. This is the only pond on earth, in which absolutely no life. The reason for this was a very high concentration of salt, which was due to the lack of drains, high temperature and the inherent low air humidity. Due to excessive salinity in the waters of the Dead Sea it is impossible to drown. Water simply pushes things up.
Local sea salt and coastal mud also have medicinal properties. Around the sea there are several medical centers, and medicines produced on the basis of local minerals are known all over the world.
The shore of the sea is replete with archaeological finds and this is not surprising. For centuries, the local beaches attracted people from different parts of the world and witnessed many historical events.
The Wailing Wall.
The main shrine of Israel, which is a place of prayer and pilgrimage for millions of Jews from all over the world. Believers leave small notes with wishes among the stones of the wall. It is believed that the wish thus left will necessarily come true.
The Wailing Wall gained its name after the multiple destruction of the main Jewish temple in Jerusalem( first by the Assyrians and then by the Romans).The wall itself is what is left of the temple after its destruction. It surrounds the Temple Mount, on which many important events from the point of view of representatives of all monotheistic religions took place. It was here that Abraham wanted to sacrifice his son, and the prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven.
