Page 27 - Discover Israel Magazine - UK edition 2018
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of the Teutonic Order (founded in Acre in
1198 to aid Crusaders from Germany), who
came from its outposts in the Southern
and Eastern Europe. They could share
the content of their conversations and the
generous hospitality they received. They
could also tell us exactly what treasures were
kept in the guarded castle, and whether they
included the crown jewels of Armenia, which
the King of Armenia gave to the Order in
1228 to protect. Exactly what they included
remains a mystery to this very day.
Alas, the stones cannot speak, and we are Mathanes Haddad, blacksmith,
left with the mystery and hypotheses of continues to use the same tools
historians as well as the original archive that as his father and grandfather to
over the years made its way to Austria and produce the finest metal tools.
Germany, where it remains today. However, Photo: Yoav Saks
today we are mainly left with a lovely spot, Elias improvising...
in the middle of the enchanting splendour of His musical pub,
the Nahal Kziv nature reserve. This reserve Shahin Music,
surrounds the channel of Nahal Kziv, the is where young
longest of the the Galilee's streams. The people come to
water that runs through it makes it possible play together.
to swim in several cool pools, with verdant Photo: Itay Avidar
growth that offers shade to hikers and
also includes a wide variety of animal life,
including over 200 Persian fallow deer
that were released into the wild as part of
an effort by the Israel Nature and Parks
Authority to bring the wild animals of the
Bible back to the Land of the Bible.
Good Bread Bakery - follow the tantalizing A memorial overlooking Lebanon
scent of the fresh-baked sourdough bread
that fills the alley in the early morning A spectacular wooden observation point
was built on Mount Adir (3,300 ft.) of heroes
heart of a green forest on the bank of Nahal of the Second Lebanon War, which brought
Kziv, you can still easily imagine the Crusader quiet to the north. The location offers one
knights who came from Europe to rescue the of the most incredible views not only of the
Holy Land, slowly leaving the gigantic castle Galilee, but also of southern Lebanon. You
with the German name Starkenberg (strong can see Mt. Hermon on the east, the towns
mountain) they built just 45 years earlier, on both sides of the border, the roads and
while taking their treasures and archives spectacular natural landscapes, and even
with them. Mamluk Sultan Baybars and his the Mediterranean to the west. Not to be
men, who beat and expelled the Crusaders, missed.
looked on as the knights marched
towards their capital of Acre after formally Craftspeople, music and good food
surrendering in June 1271.
"Why can't the peoples of the Middle East
The stones could verify the hypothesis get along and be friends like us?" This was
that the castle, while built in an area that the question I was asked by Bassem the
offers breathtaking beauty offered virtually blacksmith, the knife maker at his family's
no strategic importance, and was indeed ancient workshop, which he is now restoring.
built and used as a headquarters for the His question is typical of the entire Galilee
order of German knights. The same stones and especially Tarshisha, which is a shining
could describe the meetings of the heads example of tolerance, mutual respect and
community living among Christians, Muslims
and Jews.
Tarshisha, which today is part of the mixed
city Ma'alot-Tarshiha, was not a regular
village, but not a city either. It was something
in between. A centre of Galilee villages that
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