Page 8 - Discover Israel Magazine - UK edition 2018

Israeli passport:
70 years of tourism
Holy sites and antiquities come to life
using innovative Israeli technology
Yoni Shtern
Next year will mark Israel’s 70th
year of independence, and
you don’t want to miss the
beautifully revitalized sites the accessible, and include exhibitions as well as destinations, is the heart and soul of their
Holy Land has in store for you. New finds
throughout the country have resulted in
ground-breaking discoveries in archaeology.
At Magdala, a historic fishing village from
the Second Temple period, you can visit an
ancient synagogue probably frequented by
Jesus of Nazareth. Beside the synagogue
stands an architecturally interesting modern
church, harmoniously blending with the
Floating in the Dead Sea.
Photo:Israel Tourism's Flickr Photostream
DISCOVER ISRAEL 8
vistas of the Sea of Galilee and Golan
Heights. Further to the south are other
archaeological discoveries found thanks
to innovative technology and advanced
chemistry, proving how deeply invested the
kings of Israel were in the precious copper
industry of the ancient world. These and
other sites have all been made wheelchair
audio-visual visitor centres.
The growth in tourism and in the sheer
number of visitors is closely linked with the
technological advances in transportation. At
the early stages of mass tourism in the Holy
Land, well before commercial flights, visitors and the new international airport scheduled
would sail in steam ships that anchored in
Haifa or Jaffa. Those who disembarked in
Haifa began their tour in Nazareth and the
various Christian sites around the Sea of
Galilee, then onwards to Jerusalem, while
those who disembarked in Jaffa went the
other way round.
But these classical routes and many other
tourism sites in Israel have seen dramatic
changes and improvements over Israel’s 70
years of independence. For many tourists,
Jerusalem, one of the world’s major tourist
visit. In the early years following Israel’s
rebirth, actually getting to Jerusalem was a
difficult task. The old airstrip and roads of
the fifties hadn’t changed much from the
days of the British Mandate. Today, however,
both the well-known Ben Gurion airport
to open in Eilat in April 2018, are at the
forefront of world innovation in aviation and
customer service. Route 1 is a major and
modern artery linking Tel Aviv, Israel’s premier
business and entertainment hub, with its