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The Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem

Jerusalem travel guide

The Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem named after the Tish family, or in short the Biblical Zoo, is a zoo located on Derech Aharon Shulov 1 in Jerusalem, on the northern slopes of Nahal Refaim near Ein Yael and Ein Lavan springs. The uniqueness of the zoo is in presenting a zoological collection of Eretz Israel animals, some of which have even been mentioned in the Bible.

This zoo is one of the six zoos that are members of the Israeli Zoo Organization. According to the “Dun & Bradstreet” rating – the Biblical Zoo was the most popular attraction in Israel between the years 2005-2007, and in 2009 738,000 visitors were registered.

The zoo is uniquely built and displays the animals while integrating into the landscape. The park was designed by architect Lenny Raviv of the Miller Bloom Environmental Planning Office [14], with the goal of giving animals as similar conditions as possible to the conditions in nature. The animals are not in cages, and between the crowd and the animals there are deep ditches that prevent contact between the animals and visitors. The gene is divided into several areas, with each area having animals according to a certain category (for example, according to the continent from which the animals came).

Adjacent to the park is the Jerusalem Railway Station – the Biblical Zoo, which began operating in the second half of the 1990s and reopened in 2005 and closed when the new Jerusalem – Yitzhak Navon Railway Station opened in 2018.

Archaeological excavations have been carried out in the area of the zoo and the remains of agricultural farms dating from the third millennium BC have been discovered. Most of the exhibits discovered in the area date from the Middle Bronze Age (the first half of the second millennium BC).

At the end of the African Yard route is the Zoo Visitor Center in the shape of a Noah’s Ark where there is a kiosk, a movie theater and a souvenir shop. The center was established by Aharon Shulov in 1990 with the first film in the cinema hall that tells about the construction of the biblical zoo.

Opening hours:
Sun-Thu 09:00-18:00
Fri 09:00-16:00
Sat 09:00-17:00

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