# Israel: An Uncommon Guide *Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-19 — 1 clipping.* --- > Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Joan Comay, Israel: An Uncommon Guide, bahai-library.com. > ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── > > Israel: An Uncommon Guide > > by Joan Comay > > Maps by Rafael D. Palacios > > Random House New York > First Printing > To Michael > Copyright© i962, i966, by Joan Comay > Copyright© 1969 by Random House, Inc. > > All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Con- > ventions. Published in the United States by Random House, Inc., New > York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, > Toronto. > > Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 69-16461 > > Manufactured in the United States of America > by H. Wolff Book Manufacturing Company > > Photographs courtesy of Israel Information Services > > '7'á ....,, 0 ('"'.' > '7,// ..... > FROM DAN TO EILAT CITY OF > i ,200 ocean-going vessels, carrying more than half of the > goods entering or leaving Israel and more than 230,000 pas- > sengers. > Haifa's most important business is ships, and its most > poignant moments in the struggle for independence were > connected with ships of a special kind-the small and > shabby vessels that tried to bring Jewish refugees to the for- > bidden shores of the Promised Land. But most of them > were boarded from British naval vessels when they reached > territorial waters and were towed into Haifa harbor, where > their passengers were disembarked and dragged straight > onto waiting prison ships with deck areas caged in by wire, > in which they were shipped out again to the detention > camps in Cyprus-or, in the case of the Exodus, all the way > back to Germany, a story that made front-page news all > over the world. > Haifa never got used to the anguish of these transship- > ments, or to the crowd of weeping relatives and friends > pressing against the military barriers at the port. Then, sud- > denly, the Mandate was no more, and Haifa was the wide- > open door to the Jewish State. > Through it came a great stream of displaced persons > and immigrants. For them the excited moment of home- > coming was when they packed the deck in the early morn- > ing to watch the rosy top of Mount Carmel rise out of the > sea and hail the pilot's launch riding out to meet them ("A > Jewish pilot," they told each other, "in a Jewish launch!"). > > As the country's one big seaport and the dominant city in > the north, Haifa was a glittering prize in the fighting of > i948. Actually, its possession was dramatically settled in the > strange period of the Arab-Jewish subwar, between the > TO Tl!LAVIV > > 252 • J > FROM DAN TO EILAT HAIFA > Carmel is by the Carmelit, Haifa's tilted subway, which aliens at the beginning of World \Var II and have never > whirls you up at a preposterous angle in less than ten min- come back. (A number of them now live in Australia.) > utes. > The main business thoroughfare, running in the re- > claimed area adjoining the harbor, used to be known as Hadar ha-Carmel > Kingsway, but has been renamed Independence Road. The Hadar ha-Carmel has rather steep and congested streets, > street crowd is a colorful and amiable mixture of seamen, but it is pleasant to stroll along Herzl Street and to have > port officials and dock workers, young men and women in coffee and wonderful pastries at one of its pavement cafes, > trim naval uniform, businessmen parleying over endless which have a Viennese air about them. > cups of Turkish coffee or glasses of lemon tea, tourists, The handsome City Hall on Bialik Street houses in one > Arabs and Druses in flowing robes, and khaki-clad kibbutz- wing a gallery of modern art and an archaeological museum, > niks hurrying from the bus station with the inevitable an- which should be visited for its Roman and Byzantine exhi- > cient briefcases in their hands. bition, mainly from Caesarea, and for a noteworthy collec- > Two prominent buildings on the seaward side are the tion of ancient local coins. From the Memorial Garden in > Dagon grain silo and the huge Government Hospital, to the front, one looks down upon the harbor. The two old Turk- > south of which are the Bat Galim and Carmel bathing ish cannon standing here are survivals of a fort that once > beaches. The silo is one of the tallest buildings in Israel and guarded the town. > one of the most beautiful. It is worth visiting, both for the High up on the mountainside stands the most arresting > view from the top and for its small exhibition tracing the object in Haifa, the Bahai Shrine, with its gleaming golden > history of wheat and flour in the Holy Land from Biblical dome. The whole slope below it, right down to the German > times. Colony, is a terraced Persian garden through which runs a > From the railroad station, Carmel Boulevard sweeps up stairway lined by cypress trees. The garden is being contin- > through the old German Colony, with its solidly built ued upward behind the Shrine so that the whole effect will > gabled houses, many of them still bearing inscriptions be that of a Persian carpet spread down the mountainside > above their doors in old Gothic letters. Pross' restaurant, from top to bottom. To one side of the domed building is > which dates back to the last century, still provides a good another one modeled on the Greek Parthenon, to house their > and substantial meal. The former residents of this quarter, museum and archives. > descendants of the original German Templar settlers, a The Bahai faith, founded in Persia in i844, upholds the > Protestant group from southern Germany that started to unity of God and takes its inspirations from the Old and > set up its own colonies in the Holy Land from i868 onwards. New Testaments as well as the Koran. It has no priesthood > They were deported by the British authorities as enemy but attempts to adapt basic religious truths to modem > > • 2 57 > FROM DAN TO EILAT HAIFA > > needs. Haifa is the world center of the religion, which now the white cap of distant Mount Hermon floating over the > has several million adherents scattered over many countries. eastern horizon on a clear day. The heavy dew keeps this a > The Panorama road intersects the Bahai Garden above verdant oasis even in the dry, hot summer, and the very > the Shrine and winds up to the top of the Carmel, with a name Carmel (which means Vineyard of the Lord) sug- > more breathtaking vista opening up at each dizzy curve. gests the blend of fertility and holiness which belongs to > Looking down from this vantage point, one gets a clear idea the mountain. From earliest times, mystery shrouded the > of the planned development of the bayshore area between habitation of Carmel. Its high places held the altars of > Haifa and Acre, to the north. It now contains a number of strange gods, and its hidden places, the sanctuaries of fugi- > Israel's major industrial plants, surrounded by housing proj- tives and hermits. > ects, set in green belts, for workers and immigrants. The > And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, > plain was known as the Valley of Zebulun, after the seafar- I will search and take them out thence; . . . > ing tribe of Israel that settled in this part of the country in -Amos 9:3 > the period of the Judges. (Their emblem was a galley with a > square sail and banks of oars.) The silted mouths of two Above all, there broods over it the memory of that fierce > small rivers, the Kishon and the Na'aman, had turned the old man of God, Elijah, and his war against idolatry. > area into a malarial swamp, until it was drained and re- The Bible tells us, in the First Book of Kings, that after a > claimed by Jewish settlers more than forty years ago. three-year drought which God had sent to punish King > The most conspicuous plant in this bay industrial area is Ahab and the Israelites for their pagan cult, the Prophet > the oil refinery, with its giant concrete cooling vats, fret- Elijah gathered together on Mount Carmel 450 priests of > work metal superstructure and shining tanks. Other large Baal and proved by a miracle that their gods did not exist. > enterprises concentrated in the industrial zone produce Elijah built an altar for sacrifice, as did the other priests; but > chemicals and fertilizers, textiles, steel, glass, cement, and Baal did not come to the altar dedicated to him, whereas > soap. There are also automobile assembly plants which use God sent a fire which burnt up the sacrifice offered by Elijah. > a growing number of components manufactured locally. As a result of this miracle the people turned to the true God > and all the idolatrous priests were put to death. Then, in > answer to Elijah's prayer, came rain in abundance. The > MOUNT CARMEL place where this miracle was performed is traditionally iden- > There can be few more attractive residential districts any- tified with Muhraka or EI Muhraka (Place of Burning), > where than Har ha-Carmel (Mount Carmel), the top of seventeen miles from Haifa by the mountain road to the > the Carmel Range. It is an area of ridges and woody ravines, southeast. The spot where the pagan priests were then put > sunlit boulders and pine trees, summer breezes and glorious to death is by tradition identified with Tel el-Kuassis (Mount > views of the Mediterranean and the Galilee highlands, with of the Priest), at a bend in the River Kish on . > 258 • ..J > FROM DAN TO EILAT HAIFA > road descends through a rugged defile to the coastal high- Haifa has one exquisite moment which every vlSltor > way, passing the forest of Ya'arot ha-Carmel. The many should capture if he can. It is the sight from the top of the > caves which pit the rock-faces along the road have held Carmel of a huge orange-red sun sinking into the sea while > strange tenants in their time, from Stone Age men to Byz- a spangled veil of lights is flung along the ancient coast > antine hermits. from the Ladder of Tyre to Caesarea. > Just before Beit Oren is reached, a narrow side road turns > off to the two big Druse villages of Isfiya and Daliyat el- > Carmel. The handsome and dignified Druses from the Car- > mel move easily around Haifa city and frequent its Oriental > coffee shops, the men distinguished by their big cavalry > mustaches. Isfiya, which is populated by both Druses and > Christian Arabs, stands on the site of the ancient Jewish > village of Huseifa. A piece of a mosaic synagogue floor has > been dug up here and it depicts a pretty garland of yellow > flowers surrounding the Hebrew inscription Shalom al Yis- > rael (Peace be unto Israel); it is now in the Israel Mu- > seum in Jerusalem, and is reproduced in the design of > the Israel one-pound note. At the end of the main street in > Daliyat el-Carmel is the house occupied in the eighties of > the last century by Laurence Oliphant, an early English > supporter of the Zionist cause. The tomb of Mrs. Oliphant > is in the village. Visitors to these clean and picturesque > Druse villages can enjoy a friendly cup of Turkish coffee > while they buy the gay basketware for which the Druse > women are noted. > > Nowhere else in the world can there be the same curious > human mixture as upon the Carmel: Jewish suburbanites, > kibbutzniks, Carmelite monks, Druses, Christian Arabs, > Moslems, and Bahais-all living side by side among the lin- > gering echoes of primitive cavemen, pagan altars, hermits > and Crusaders. > 262 • > FROM DAN TO EILAT THE GALILEE > > columns brought from the Roman ruins of Caesarea farther tables, and prices are settled in a dozen different tongues. > down the coast. These arcades enclose three sides of a large, Travelers to Palestine in the eighteenth and nineteenth > sunny courtyard; behind them are small domed cells for the centuries talked of the grain trade carried on in Acre, where > scholarly. The courtyard is paved with worn flagstones, and two to thr<"e thousand camels arrived daily in the season > trees and flowering shrubs spring up in the corners. The from the Haman in Syria. The grain caravans have disap- > sundial gives it charm, and the fountains gaiety. The peared, and the trucks piled high with produce from the > mosque closes off the fourth side of the square. The Minis- fertile Galilee have taken their place. > try of Religions has painted it and restored the ancient in- The most important Crusader monument in Acre is > scriptions. The visitor who slips off his shoes and enters will known as the Crypt of St. John. The entrance can be > find the proportions good, but the effect one of emptiness. reached from a lane off the bazaar. This magnificent vaulted > At the bottom of the stairs leading to the square is stone hall under the Turkish Citadel has been excavated > Ahmed Jezzar's fountain, and next door are luxurious and is now believed to have been the refectory of the > eighteenth-century steam baths modeled on those in Cairo Hospitalers. A secret tunnel has been found and cleared > but used today as a municipal museum. Here the Turkish at the base of one of the big columns that support the > tiling forms an attractive background for the collection of Gothic arched roof. It leads right through the city to the > medieval ceramics and archaeological fragments through water's edge and was almost certainly designed as a secret > which the tumultuous history of the city can be traced, and passageway which in times of emergency offered the knights > also for a series of tableaux showing Arab and Druse village direct access to their vessels from the central hall. > life and costumes. In the course of the clearance work, other openings were > Most of the buildings in the Old City of Acre are found in the walls of this tunnel. These lead to what ap- > squeezed together and threaded by narrow alleys in which a pears to be a considerable network of wider tunnels mark- > rich assortment of communities amicably rub shoulders. ing the streets of the old Crusader city beneath the present > The population includes nearly 5,000 Christian and Mos- street levels. When all this is cleared, which may take years, > lem Arabs and 20,000 Jewish immigrants from a score of it will perhaps prove one of the most exciting Crusader sites > different countries. New immigrant quarters have spread to in the world. There is also the possibility that beneath the > the east, across the highway. Crusader city is the city of Roman times, for remains of > The chief meeting place is the winding bazaar which that period have already come to light. > crosses the Old City. Here Arab pottery jars jostle plastic The Citadel, whose stone walls rise sheer above the lane > cups and saucers, while in the metalworkers' street Euro- leading to the so-called Crypt of St. John, was built by the > pean tinsmiths hammer out zinc buckets next door to Arab Turks in the eighteenth century and rests on Crusader > coppersmiths making traditional coffee urns. Little don- foundations. During the Mandate the Citadel was used as > keys share with trucks the deliveries of fresh fruit and vege- the central prison of Palestine. In its dungeons were locked > > 268. • 269 > FROM DAN TO EILAT THE GALILEE > captured members of the Jewish underground resistance he was released in i892 after twenty-four years of imprison- > movement; and tablets in the execution chamber, which ment in the Acre jail. The house is preserved exactly as it > now serves as a small museum, record the names of those was and its furnishings are an odd blend of Victorian and > who were hanged. The novel and film Exodus recall the Persian. > i947 jailbreak of resistance fighters from the Acre prison. The dramatic stone aqueduct that runs parallel to the > Here too are the cells where the Bahai apostles were impris- main road was built by Jezzar atop the remains of an an- > oned by the Turks more than half a century ago. The Cita- cient Roman one to bring fresh water to Acre from the > del today, looking less grim after being repainted a soft pink Springs of Kabri. Each of the aqueduct's hundreds of arches > color, serves as a government psychiatric hospital. As new is a separate picture frame enclosing a vista of farms and > institutions are built the patients will be moved out, and hills, orange groves and cypress trees, surmounted by a > there are plans afoot to clear the moat and restore the Cru- curved slice of blue sky. > sader citadel. On a small plateau next to the aqueduct stands a square > On top of the walls is a restaurant and night club called museum exhibiting scenes of the Nazi period. It was estab- > Chumot Acco (Walls of Acre). It can be approached lished by the nearby kibbutz Lohamei ha-Ghettaot, which > through a secret tunnel. is composed of ghetto fighters. > The road down to the old port passes a number. of Jez- Nahariya (River) gets its name from a small stream that > zar's cannon, mounted on the sea wall, and some captured runs down the center of the main street of this town. With > French pieces that Sir Sydney Smith presented to him after its fine beach, its gardens and its clean, pleasant pensions > the defeat of Napoleon. The road ends at the port, now (boarding houses) and cafes, it has become a popular sum- > sanded up and shallow with small fishing boats riding at mer resort. At the beginning, Nahariya remained a strong- > anchor in the lee of a crumbling medieval tower. hold of the German Jews and the German language; there > Between Acre and the Lebanese border stretch twelve is an apocryphal story that when the Royal Commission of > miles of fertile coastal plain. i936 recommended a partition plan by which their town > would fall within the proposed Arab state, the angry inhab- > An avenue of eucalyptus trees just beyond the city limits itants cabled Dr. Weizmann that, come what may, "Naha- > of Acre marks the entrance to the Government Experimen- riya bleibt immer Deutsch" (Nahariya remains forever Ger- > tal Station, where a former Turkish khan (caravan inn) man). > with a spacious cobbled courtyard now houses Israel's most The faintly scandalous archaeological pride of this very > important stud farm for horses and mules. respectable town is the remains of a Canaanite temple that > A mile to the north is the house and tomb of the prophet was discovered while the foundation of a house was being > and founder of the Bahai sect, Baba-Ullah (Glory of God), dug near the beach. A little figure of i 500 B.c. was found at > set in a beautiful flower garden. This is where he lived when the site; it seems to be that of Astarte, the Goddess of Fer- > 270. • 271 > > — *Israel: An Uncommon Guide (Used by permission of the curator)*