Haifa and The Ba'hai Gardens

Yesterday Kyle and I arrived in the port city of Haifa in the north. The public transportation is great here in Israel. We just took about an hour long train ride along the coast. Pretty much from our doorstep in Herzliya to the hostel in Haifa. Haifa is a decent size city set on Mt. Carmel facing Haifa Bay. It's main attraction are the Ba'hai Gardens located along the side of Mt. Carmel. The gardens belong to the Ba'hai faith. Ba'hai is the worlds newest religion and was started around 1830 and today has over 7 million followers. They believe in one god and preach world peace and unity. Not a bad concept. The gardens are part of a memorial for the faiths founder. He is buried in the large golden dome pictured above. The gardens are over 1 km long, have 120 full time gardeners, 1400 steps, cost 250 million to build, and are semetrical to promote unity and equality. We took a tour this morning. Many of the Ba'hai faith make pilgramage here every year. However, there is a 10 year waiting list to get in for those who practice the religion. The reason for this is because of an agreement with Israel. The Ba'hai said they would only allow 400 faithful a month to visit. Everything was cut and cleaned to perfection. The gardens are a truly remarkable landmark. We literally saw people cleaning the marble with toothbrush size brushes. A small stream runs along the steps all the way down through various fountains and to the bottom. In the picture on the right you can see part of the city of Haifa in the background. If anyone is interested in learning more about it you can check out www.bahai.us On a different note....Kyle and I ran into a soldier that was with us on the Birthrite part of our trip at the beach yesterday. I know like a total of 8 Israelis and I already ran into one! This truly is a tiny country. So today she is going to take us around and then we will probably go to the next city to the north, Akko. This city has what are said to be the most amazing Roman ruins from the time of the Roman occupation. Until next time, bye! With emphasis on the aye. That is hebrew for goodbye : ) So now you know some easy hebrew....