Haifa

Haifa is a newer city - 19th C. many buildings, 20th C. for the port. But like everywhere else, it has an ancient past. I spent the day there, beginning with a train ride up the coast from Tel Aviv - about $7. Then got a taxi to the top of Mt. Carmel - of biblical fame as the place where Elijah hid in a cave from Queen Jezebel - this would be 3,500+ years ago. So those early Christians decided to come here and become hermits (12th C. Crusader era), but the Christian pilgrims wouldn't leave them alone - so they started a monastery for hospitality and became the Order of Carmelites - which had a rugged time when the Turks came into power and destroyed the chapel; which was rebuilt in time to extend hospitality to Napoleon in 1799 - but he lost - so the monastery was destroyed again. The current building dates to
1836. Sorry - it looks like the computer can't figure out if I am typing Engish or Hebrew.