Up In the Air, a Bird’s-eye View of Israel

December 3, 2013

Rosh HaNikra
At the northernmost tip of Israel is Rosh HaNikra with its white chalk cliffs and amazing grottoes carved by water, wind, and waves. Rosh HaNikra’s website calls it “a love story between the sea and the mountain.” Then, it makes sense that the cable car that brings them together is the “kiss.” The bright yellow and red cable cars plunge down the 70 meter-high cliff (230 ft) to the grottoes below at a steep angle of 60 degrees, but the descent is smooth, controlled and only two minutes from top to bottom. If you have your camera ready, you can capture some beautiful shots of the sea. Only rarely will stormy weather stop the cable cars from making their descent.

Haifa
www.wikipedia.org/Dickelbers If you see a trio of little orange bubbles suspended from a cable high above the slopes of Mount Carmel, you’ve spotted the Haifa cable cars. The trip starts along the seashore at the Bat Galim promenade in Haifa and will take you to to the Stella Maris church at the top of the Mount Carmel ridge. If you’re weary and footsore, the cable car will save the climb and you’ll see beautiful panoramas of Haifa Bay and the Mediterranean beyond.

Manara
www.wikipedia.org/Lea Peretz The longest cable car in Israel at 1,940 meters (6,365 ft) and one of Israel’s most popular tourist attractions, the Manara Cliff cable car runs from Kiryat Shemona to the Manara Kibbutz at the top of the Naftali range. From its attractive little 8-seater cars, you can see the snow-capped peaks of the Hermon mountains, and panoramic views of the Galilee, Hula Valley and the Golan Heights.

Masada
www.wikipedia.org/K.Szajowski Romans and Zealots had few options to get to the top of the sheer, rocky cliffs of Masada other than a difficult climb. But 21st-century visitors have the decided advantage of taking a speedy cable car to the summit. To facilitate the movement of huge crowds, standing-room-only cars make the 3-minute trip frequently throughout the day. From the glass cars, long vistas of the Dead Sea and the Judean Desert are spectacular if you’re lucky enough to get an uninterrupted view near the windows.

Mount Hermon
www.wikipedia.org/udi Steinwell Pikiwiki Israel’s one ski resort is open year-round, and its cable car ascends to the summit to give visitors amazing views of Israel, Syria and Lebanon from an altitude of 2,814 meters (9,232 ft). It’s well worth the trip up!

Jericho
www.wikipedia.org/Reinhard Dietrich Bright orange cable cars ferry passengers from Tel Jericho to the top of Mount Temptation. The ride takes five minutes and, at the top, visitors can enjoy the restaurant or walk to the Monastery and take stunning photos of the desert plains and the city of Jericho.

Jerusalem
The municipality has proposed building a cable car system capable of whisking 6,000 passengers per hour to the Old City via air to help with tourist traffic flow. One route will take visitors from the vicinity of the First Station, Jerusalem’s historic railway station, to the Dung Gate, and the other proposed route will go from the Dung Gate to the Mount of Olives. The Transportation Ministry has deemed the project “unrealistic,” so time will tell if the project gets “off the ground.”

www.wikipedia.org/Sir kiss Another cable car, famous in Jerusalem’s history, was a military secret until 1972. This cable car spanned the Hinnom Valley from Mount Zion to the Israeli position in Yemin Moshe during the War of Independence in 1948. Only in use under cover of darkness, the cable car ferried supplies to the soldiers fighting on Mount Zion and evacuated the wounded. Before dawn, the cable and the car were lowered into the valley so they would not be detected by the enemy.

An intriguing side note: One end of the steel cable terminated in a dorm room on the western face of an old boys’ school on the slopes of Mount Zion. This building later housed the Institute of Holy Land Studies, a school established by G. Douglas Young, the founder of Bridges for Peace.

Source: By Kathy DeGagné, Staff Writer