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Discovering Abu Gosh: A Historic Village of Hummus, Music and Monasteries
inisrael.com travel guide

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Enjoy Israel

Discovering Abu Gosh: A Historic Village of Hummus, Music and Monasteries

Jerusalem travel guide

Abu Gosh is a lovely, picturesque village located in the Judean Hills, off a winding road between Tel Avi and Jerusalem, dating back some 6,000 years. The village is situated on a mountainside and serves as a tourist attraction, drawing in many visitors.

The village is particularly famous for its hummus restaurants. You may not reach the original Abu Shukri restaurant, but there are many restaurants serving authentic and particularly tasty food throughout the village, at affordable prices. Aside from the famous restaurants, twice a year – during Sukkot and Shavuot – the village holds a vocal music festival. The festival hosts choirs from across the country and around the world, which perform in the village’s monasteries. The village has a number of guest houses, gift shops, candle shops and glassware stores. The atmosphere in the village is unique, as it serves as a meeting point for the three religions: Jewish Israelis and tourists from around the world visit the Muslim village in order to hear music at a Christian church.

During Biblical times the village was called Kiryat Ye’arim. The Ark of the Covenant was placed there and it was a site for religious rituals. Later, during the Byzantine period, a church was built on the highest point in the village. This church was destroyed during the Persian occupation, and The Church of Our Lady of the Ark of the Covenant – which features a large statue of the Virgin Mary – was built on its ruins. These days, nuns live in the church and twice a year, during Sukkot and Shavuot, it hosts choirs from across Israel and around the world during the vocal music festival.

According to Christian belief, Abu Gosh is where Jesus appeared following his resurrection. During the Crusader period a church and stunning monastery were built in the village, which have been preserved to this day. The Benedictine Monastery is surrounded by a huge, lovely garden with ancient olive trees, an orchard and grapevines. The monastery’s interior walls feature frescos that were drawn during the thirteenth century, and a spring flows from the monastery’s crypt. The site also houses a ceramics and candle factory, operated by the monks. Six daily prayer sessions are held at the monastery, from 5:30 A.M.-8:30 P.M., and visitors are encouraged to visit during one of the sessions, for the unique opportunity to hear prayer songs performed in an 800-year-old church.

Monastery Visiting Hours: Monday-Wednesday and Friday-Saturday: 8:30 A.M.-11:30 A.M. and 2:30 P.M.-5:30 P.M.

Time Elevator, Jerusalem

Time Elevator, Jerusalem

The Time Elevator takes visitors on a fascinating, historical journey over 3,000 years, telling the story of the city of Jerusalem. Haim Topol, who starred in Fiddler on the Roof, is our tour guide, leading us between collapsing ceilings, water hoses and other special effects that enhance the experience and the unforgettable journey to historical Jerusalem: From the City of David through the 1967 War. With an exciting original film written by historians and archeologists, featuring special effects, viewers can enjoy a fascinating journey to the most dramatic moments in Jerusalem's history. Visitors meet the Prophet Jeremiah, confront King Zedekiah and relive the destruction of the First and Second Temples. The audience goes through the Roman occupation of Jerusalem, the birth of Christianity, the rise of Islam, hundreds of years of occupation in the Holy Land and the drama of the establishment of the State of Israel. Visitors are provided with surround sound headphones and may choose to listen to the show in English, Russian, French, Spanish, German, Mandarin, Italian or Hebrew. A visit to the Time Elevator has become an important and essential part of each visit to Jerusalem. The Human Body: This exhibit reveals the secrets of the most sophisticated machine that man did not design: the human body itself. In what way do we breathe? How do we perceive information? How do we digest? The answers to these questions will be revealed to you by stunning and accurate 3D simulations of the ear, brain, muscles, lungs, and even the womb as we journey through these structures. It is made possible by "Info", a futuristic robot-capsule that guides the journey and provides its own unique perspective on the body's activities. The Auschwitz camp in Birkenau is being toured using virtual reality using 3D glasses (VR) for the first time in Israel. Take part in an exciting, thrilling and unusual three-dimensional experience in Poland - without leaving Israel, while making an intergenerational historical connection. An experienced guide will accompany you on a 65-minute virtual reality (VR) tour. On the tour, Rabbi Israel Goldwasser, a leading Holocaust researcher and lecturer, will accompany you. Admission is limited to those aged 15 and older. Presented in languages: Hebrew, English.

Christian Quarter - Old City Jerusalem

Christian Quarter - Old City Jerusalem

The Christian Quarter functions as the most toured quarter of the old city and the second largest out of the four. Located only moments after the Jaffa gate in the northwest, it serves many of the people visiting the old city, as its threshold. The quarter, consisting of both broad streets and narrow alleys, is the base for the famous Holy Sepulchre Church. The church is said to be built over the areas of Jesus’ crucifixion, burial place and his resurrection. Serving as the heart of Christian life in Jerusalem, the quarter naturally plays the part of home for monks, nuns and priests as well as being connected to both the Greek and Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Besides the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the quarter prides itself in the Mursitan, built over the wreckage of the old Knights Hospitaller hospital, which serves now as a marketplace. Also, tourists can find themselves entering the neo-Romanesque Lutheran Church of the Redeemer or continuing their shopping in the Christian Quarter Shuk which leads into the bazaar of the Moslem Quarter, where they can find many souvenir shops with the same variety on the whole. More about the Old CIty >>

Virtual Tour - The Western Wall of Jerusalem

Virtual Tour - The Western Wall of Jerusalem

The holiest Jewish site in the world and a renowned symbol of Jerusalem's Old City, the Western Wall is a remnant of the retaining wall built by Herod the Great in the 1st century BC, to encompass the Second Temple enclosure. As the only remainder of their sacred, destroyed Temple, Jewish people from all over the world, throughout two thousands years of exile, have faced the direction of the Western Wall on their prayers. It is a Jewish belief that the Holy Presence has never left the Western Wall, thus it became the most significant site of Jewish pilgrimage, where Jews came to mourn the ruin of the Temple. This is how the Wall, "Ha'kotel" in Hebrew, has gained the name - the "Wailing Wall". The big plaza in front of the Wall is divided into two sections - one for women and one for men. Here you can observe different kinds of Jewish activities and prayers, from orthodox Jews dressed in black reading their bible, to Israeli soldiers and groups of Jewish tourists. Leaning against the Wall and kissing the stones, the prayers' most famous custom is to insert a note with a prayer to God between the Wall's bricks, believing in its priority to be answered. The Western Wall serves as a favorite location for Jewish traditional celebrations, and gets amazingly alive on Friday eve (the arrival of Sabbath) and on Jewish holidays. While visiting the Kotel you may see a Bar Mitzvah kid holding the Torah on his traditional ceremony, or an excited bride & groom being photographed before their wedding. Information: The Western Wall is open 24 hours, and requires a modest dress for women and a head cover for the men. Admission is free. The closest gate to enter the Old City directly to the Wall is the Dung Gate. Buses No. 1 and 2 reach inside the Old City to the area of the Wall.

Jerusalem - one of a kind
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