Shvilist

A relatively short (8 km long) and easy (mostly downhill) trail. This one way trail takes you into the evergreen forest of the Carmel, enter a flowing fountain to cool yourself, rest in a huge cave (which turns out to be a natural tunnel to the other side of the hill)… but i’m getting ahead of myself.

The black-marked trail begins near Haifa university , and descends Neder stream – until Ein Kedem , which is located in a partially sealed cave – but you can climb into it – and a short (approx 15 meters), low tunnel will take you to the source. This tunnel is dark and water filled, so bring flashlight and bathing suit – and enjoy

From the fountain the trail continues for another 300 meters , till Galim stream is reached. from that point, a short (though a bit steep) climb to the other side will bring you to Oranit cave – one of the largest in the Carmel. In fact, one of its extensions  crosses the hill and forms a tunnel, through which the trail (red marked) takes you to Sfunim cave – the place to spot bats.

the trail ends at highway 4, near Mitle stream (little more than 1 km northen to the entrance to Megadim).

The Israel National Trail stops at Dan. However, Dan is not the northern end of the state of Israel (well – it is if you don’t go any westward. But after all the road that’s been covered, stopping in Dan just didn’t feel RIGHT). So I carried on. I already published the journey westward (climbing up the Golan Heights) and the beginning of the northward journey, towards the Hermon mount., BUT -  unfortunately, my dog died – and so i didn’t feel like carrying on, even though I was a single day’s journey from the end.

Accompanied by three of my friends, we took on the final stage of the climb. The trail begins at the parking lot of the ski resort, right at the beginning of the Golan trail (I’ll probably attempt it next spring. stay tuned ) but where the Golan trail veers to the right (and clims down the mountain, towards the heights) this trail takes a left turn – and began the climb.

On the map, it is quite a short trail, about 4 km (one way). But the trail is one of the steepest in Israel – reaching the top of the ski resort. It took us about five hours to climb up and down again.

The good thing about us being in such elevation (around 2000 meters) is that spring (and summer)  arrives later here than in the rest of the country – and so we were able to see some flowers, even though down it is the end of May.

The memorial in which I camped is located a few Km from Kalat Namrud – Nimrod’s fortress. This impressive place was built by Saladin’s nephew, but since I have been there many times in the past, I did not visit it this time.

The fortress is built on top of a hill, on the border between mount Hermon and the Golan heights. Geographically speaking – i think it’s part of the Hermon, since the hill is lime stone and not Basalt – but that’s not really my field of expertise. Anyway, on it’s northern side runs a deep canyon, which was created by Hasuri stream (the same stream is renamed Gubta at one point). The Hasuri is the upper part of the stream, and has water running in it – and then they disappear underneath the earth, probably to reappear in the Banias fountain. Thogh short, this is a very steep canyon, and it took me about 4 hours to climb down it’s 3.5 Km.

I started ascending the Golan heights by walking along Banias river – the third stream which will form (along with the Dan and the Hazbani) the Jordan river. The hike starts by the village of Shar-Yeshuv, with a relatively not very visited part of the river (i thought it was more impressive than the other, more popular part). Before entering the second part you are forced to abandon the trail, and walk through the official entrance of the national park.

By the end of Banias natural park you have the ancient city of Caesarea Philippi – which was built by Herod‘s son, phillipus. The city was built near an acient temple to the greek god of Pan, which in turn was built on top of an even older temple to the Semitic god of Gad.

After the visit to the city & the temple’s ruins, I hiked along Sa’ar stream (a green marked trail). Despite his name  (Sa’ar means storm) there is only a trickle of water…. guess that ten years of continued drought can do that to a stream. The trail, again, divides into two parts : one leading to the road to Ein Kania, a Druze village, and the other one is taking from the road up to what the map marks as a waterfall (and then you have to backtrack yourself all the way to the road again). I did hike all the way to the waterfall – but I cannot say that it was worth it, due to the small amount of water trickling in what used to be an impressive waterfall. Looks to me as a place to visit after heavy showers in this region…

I went along the road, through Ein Kania all the way to Egoz memorial (near Hazuri stream), where i camped for the night.

Since I did not visit those sites as a prat of the INT, i came back the following day to see them. Tel Dan is a tiny place, and so for most visitors three hours visit will suffice for a leisurely visit – and it’s a visit which is very worth-making.

The reservation is roughly divided into two parts : the first one is the fountains which creates the Dan river (one of the three which join up to form the Jordan river). The second part is an archeological site – the ancient city of Laish. The formal brochure, in Hebrew, could be downloaded here.

Dan existed for about 5000 years – it was deserted only in the Roman period (about 2000 years ago). It is mentioned in the bible in several different places : The two most important are the description of the conquest of the Canaanite city of Laish by the tribe of Dan, sometime during the Iron age, and the second is the placing of a golden calf at the temple in the city by Yerovam Ben Navat. At about 796 B.C. the kigdom of Israel was divided into the kingdom of Judea, and the kingdom of Israel – and Yerovam was the first king of Israel after this division. Since the temple was in Jerusalem, and Yerovam didn’t want his people entering the kingdom of Judea, not to mention paying taxes to the priests – he built two religion centers : in Dan and in Beit El. the temple in Dan, where the golden statue of a calf was placed, is visible today.

Osishkins house is a nature museum, hosting the collections of Menachem Osishkin. It also presents some of the archeological findings from the ancient city of Dan. Unlike Tel Dan, i wouldn’t recommend it – it’s a small place, and the collections are few and not too impressive.