HAIFA, the holy city of the Baha'i religion

Haifa is situated on a large hill called Mt. Carmel which is surrounded on three sides by the Mediterranean Sea. The map from our last page illustrates this nicely. We turned off the main highway, Rt. 4, to climb part way up. Below, looking back on the sea below. Sheldon and I both had Kodak digital cameras and some of our pictures are from his camera.

Looking the other way up the hill we see the Shrine of the Bab -- the resting place of the forerunner of Bahá'u'lláh and Abdu'l-baha, the leader of the Baha'i faith from 1892-1921.   All around the shrine, there are beautiful gardens which we visited next. But not before some personal photos.

Some of the floral displays were of a selected type like this beautiful display of desert plants and cactus.

But clearly, as we drive higher and higher on the side of Mt. Carmel, the city of Haifa was more and more distant below.

Soon, we were able to look down on the shrine of the Bab.

I think we ate lunch at the restaurant on the left.

Soon, the city of Haifa was far below us.

And we were looking down on the Shrine and the street we stopped earlier. Then we broke for lunch.

I think it is time for another map. To the left is HAIFA, and one can see how the purple mountain at the tip of the peninsula affords the views shown above. Our next and last stop of the day is the Druze village of Daliyat el-Karmel. The Druze are Arab communities that have long lived in Israel and are the only Arabs that serve in the Israeli army. They are not hostile and provide many touring opportunities for the Israelis. We were there too late for anything but to visit their shops. The village lies right in the center of the green portion of the map.  The lateness of the hour can be seen by the photos. Note that all shops are open on Christmas Day. Nothing in Israel closes for Christmas or for that matter, any other Sunday.

Shopping was great. Elaine was tempted to buy this outrageous print of outrageous "Kramer" of the Seinfeld Show.

But, a cooler head prevailed, and hand painted tiles were selected instead. For us, we bought a Loaves & Fishes tile.