How to become a tour guide in Israel. Guide-interpreters abroad. Training guides in Israel. church of st. Martyr Alexandra, Trinity Cathedral, Sergius Compound

The condition for admission is, of course, knowledge of the language necessary to understand the entire body of knowledge. The exam is quite difficult, but at the initial stage, they accept almost all those who applied and paid. The course costs approximately $6,000. Includes 2 days of classroom instruction and 80 field trips. For admission, it is enough to have a secondary education, that is, to complete a general secondary school. There are no advantages for holders of the second degree (that is, a complete higher education, like mine). As for foreigners, I don’t know, but I’ll try to find out.

Classes - 2 days a week for 5 hours in the classroom and a full day excursion - up to 12 hours or more. A total of 80 excursions. Classes are controlled very strictly, for 2 years it is allowed to miss 4 excursions. After each - a report. I did half of it (in the full sense of the word) in Hebrew, then I was allowed to take it in Russian. Internal exams are held on all topics - they are compiled by the professor who taught the course, and as a rule, they are not repeated - you can tell. There are also about 20 of them (from prehistory to the present). We had a very strong group, only 1 out of 30 dropped out during our studies, as a rule, 3-4 people give up earlier. Money is not returned, only if you leave almost in the second week.

The license is issued for the right to work in any museum, only in some restrictions, for example, in a memorial dedicated to the Holocaust, I will not be able to lead a tour for schoolchildren or soldiers. There are guides there.

As a rule, guides are not particularly eager to conduct a tour themselves, this is a time for a break. (I know for myself).

The license is renewed every 2 years, it is necessary to take part in some additional seminar. How much does it cost - I'll find out. Attendance is mandatory, a list of seminars is provided, and payment is also mandatory.

In fact, a tour guide in Israel must know the whole history, culture, all the main tourist places (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), animals, plants, geology, geomorphology, main feeding and snacking places, toilets, etc. Therefore, in theory, I can lead a tour anywhere, but as a rule, guides choose an area or specialization.
I can go to any tourist place for free. Plus discounts at restaurants. Theater and cinema - for a fee.

As for the police tour, I don’t know yet whether they are catching it or not, I also don’t know yet. There were two guys in our group who led excursions for several years, I think one of them was caught and OBLIGED to get a license, because there was a story with a tourist injury and our guy did not have compulsory insurance. In my opinion, something there was connected with a large fine in court.

As a rule, guides work from a company, the salary is at least $ 220 a day. There is no hourly pay.

My friend works both from a company (on the bus) and privately - from an agent directly. He has a mini-van for 7 people, he charges from 500 to 700 dollars a day. He is a member of the guides union, has parking benefits, and the entire social package. He pays taxes regularly.
I think that you can work privately "with friends", but you will have to pay for all paid places and for yourself too. And again, all the responsibility is on you, if anything.

The Arabs are now dumping - they are ready to take 2 or even 3 times less for work, but this is an English-speaking market. It is not controlled in any way, (as far as I know) the Arabs who graduated from the Israeli state course have the right to work, the same as the Israelis .

But in the Palestinian territory, for example, in Bethlehem, I, as an Israeli guide, cannot work in Hebrew (English), but in Russian, I can))).

The final exam is very difficult, 2 parts, written, and if you pass in 2 months, it’s oral. In any case, such cases are not known to me, maybe there were in history.

Guide-interpreters abroad (in the alphabet of countries)

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The license of a tour guide or guide of the Israeli Ministry of Tourism is an official document confirming that a specialist has the necessary knowledge, his right to provide excursion services on the territory of a particular country. A state license is issued by an educational institution specializing in the training of guides.

Why would a tourist need to know if a guide is licensed?

Israel is the Promised Land, which people from many countries of the world aspire to see, Christians, Muslims, Jews, representatives of other religious movements, and simply tourists who want to see the whole world with their own eyes. That is why in Israel tourism is a thriving business, run not only by professionals, but also by amateurs.

Having a license is a guarantee that a person will deal with a qualified guide, and not with a freelancer who independently learned a certain excursion route.

How the best guides in Israel are trained

The future guide undergoes a training course that lasts 2-3 years. Students are taught by professors of history, archeology and other sciences, as well as guides with impressive work experience. The course includes:

• Theoretical knowledge concerning the geography, history, religion and culture of Israel;
• Studying history on the spot, only in Jerusalem students receive 30-40 days of practical walking lessons!
• Practical implementation of the acquired knowledge in the form of examination excursions;
• Legal and financial aspects of conducting excursion activities;
• Features of planning and organizing travel routes around the country or a particular city;
• Psychological nuances of working with tourists, teaching the ability to competently, excitingly and interestingly present information;
• Activation of the desire to independently improve their skills, deepen knowledge and improve the quality of excursions.
• A language proficiency test in which the future guide plans to conduct excursions.

The tour guide license is issued for a year. Each tour guide must be accredited at the beginning of the year in order to obtain a work permit the following year.

Graduates of such courses can work in travel agencies or run a private practice. A personal guide is a specialist who organizes personal excursions along an individually compiled route. It is private guides that are popular in Israel today, as they have brought local tourism to a new qualitative level. And it is easy to explain the peculiarities of working with them.

Benefits of ordering a personal licensed guide:

• Fascinating accompaniment of tourists, opening up new horizons and information;
• Conducting individual excursions in small groups;
• Providing reliable historical, cultural and geographical information;
• Use of modern means and techniques for planning and optimizing routes;
• The ability to find an approach to each tourist, to translate into reality his expectations from the excursion and make it interesting;
• Provision of additional services: transfer, shopping accompaniment, selection of restaurants, organization of evening leisure, etc.

The best guides in Israel are licensed guides. Choose them and you will be sure that you will receive a complex of qualified tourist services!

Even in ancient times, the sages were once asked: “What does a person value most in the world? »
The answer came immediately: “More than anything in the world, a person appreciates life, money and freedom. »
Then they asked the sages the second question: “Why did you name three things at the same time instead of one?”
And the wise men answered: “As long as a man lives he tries to earn more money, To have freedom because such is the nature of man."

Now it is the 21st century, but nothing has changed since the dawn of civilization. As before, a person values ​​life, money and freedom. So it was, so it is, and so it will always be.

A huge number of people around the world, to the extent possible, satisfy their desire to find a sense of freedom through travel. For this, methods, methods and means are used that amaze the imagination in quantity and variety.
It is thanks to the desire of man for freedom that a gigantic industry called tourism was born and developed. Israel has not lagged behind in this matter.

Israel occupies one of the leading places in the world in terms of tourism. Inbound tourism is booming. There is still an increased demand for offers in the domestic tourism market in Israel. Outgoing tourism is only growing every year and, even according to the most modest forecasts of foreign analysts, will grow, no matter what. This is not surprising. When the country is restless, many Israeli citizens tend to leave and take a break from all worries and worries. When it's good in the country - especially if there is work, which means there is money - then the citizens go just to relax and gain new impressions, so that when they return, they can again earn money for the next trip. As stated earlier, outbound tourism in Israel has always flourished, no matter what, and will continue to flourish.

According to experts, the share of Russian-speaking Israelis in the tourism sector is also steadily growing. Olim gradually settle down, master Hebrew, find a good job and begin to realize their genetically inherent craving for freedom. There is nothing to say about the native Israelis at all. Israelis are probably the most traveled people in the world.

But everything is not as simple as it seems at first glance. On the way of any person who yearns for freedom, there are many not entirely pleasant and not always clear things in the form of state borders, laws and regulations governing the rules of travel abroad.

The traveler is faced with organizational troubles, a huge number of customs regulations, ignorance of the area where he directs his feet, and many other obstacles that poison the sweet feeling of freedom and take away the precious time allotted for the journey.

Therefore, any person planning a trip abroad is ready to pay a professional agent who, in a short time, will issue all the necessary documents in accordance with the current regulations and save the future traveler from all the unpleasant moments associated with making a trip.
Such professional travel agents today are very, very in demand in Israel and abroad, because without this type of service, no travel is simply impossible. It is for this reason that the NEWMAN CENTER has been training professional travel agents at its base for many years.

STRUCTURE, DURATION AND DESCRIPTION OF THE COURSE

The course of travel agents is structured as follows:

Classes are held once a week for 4 academic hours, in the evenings on weekdays, and there is also a course that is held only on Fridays.
Everyone who enrolls in a travel agent course receives discounts on Hebrew or English courses of various levels. Classes in the language of your choice are held on different days and hours, but the entire educational process is carried out here, with us, at Derech Ha-Agana 34 in Tel Aviv.

During the course of travel agents, students study in detail the whole "kitchen" of registration of foreign travel.
Incoming, outgoing and domestic tourism and all related specific documents from the field of regulatory legislation are being studied.
Popular tourist routes and destinations are studied, as well as the features of the countries of the world that provide these routes.

On the course of travel agents, students study in detail, in all aspects, the main types of tourist services in the field of aviation service, railway service (railway service is highly developed in European countries) and sea tourism service, as well as all the necessary elements from the field of customs regulations for all the above types of services.
The hotel service is studied (within the framework necessary for a professional travel agent), the rental of means of transport at a distance, as well as many other very important and necessary things, without which it is impossible to become a true specialist in the field of tourism.

As part of practical classes, 2 computer programs are studied.

The first program is "GILBOA".
This is a specialized database program designed specifically for travel agencies (like "Hashavshevet" for accountants). All travel agencies today use this program, which greatly facilitates the complex work of a specialist in the design of foreign and domestic travel.

The second program is AMADEUS.
With its help, the travel agent enters the terminals of international airlines and can purchase, book or cancel tickets without leaving the office.
Also, with the help of this program, it is possible to change the status of passengers, extract all the necessary and relevant information on schedules, flight groups and bonuses for flights, information on the conditions of cargo clearance.
In addition, this program allows you to perform many other important and necessary functions, without which a quick travel arrangement is unthinkable.
By the way, only persons who have undergone comprehensive theoretical and practical training under the AMADEUS program are allowed to work with terminals in travel agencies. After all, one wrong button press - and instead of 2 tickets to New York, 200 tickets can be ordered. 198 tickets, of course, can be canceled, but this will be lost money, time and nerves. Therefore, there is such a strict approach to the admission of administrative employees to work with terminals.

Of course, it is very difficult on the scale of a small article to tell in detail about everything that you will study within 7 months within our walls. Or what exciting prospects open up before you in terms of personal low-cost travel.
Therefore, just allow me to sincerely wish you successful studies, successful employment and all the very best.

Course program

(120 hours)

Types of tourism:
visiting
Entry
Interior

GILBOA (tourist office program)
AMADEUS (booking and ticketing program)
AMADEUS VISTA (scheduled flights)

- Enter / exit the program
— Availability of seats for the flight
- Basic commands, flipping, varieties of commands
- Direct affiliation
— Reservation of seats for the flight
- Waiting list
- straight segment
— Flight schedule
— Flight Information
- PNR - passenger's personal reservation (PNR elements)
— Frequent flyer
— Choosing a seat on board the aircraft
— Salons and classes on board the aircraft
– Baggage and pets, hand luggage
— Order search
— Change in order
— Changing passenger data
— Change in route
— Call to the screen parts of the order
- Flipping
— Division of the order
— Copying an order
- Cancellations
— Computer mail
— Coding, decoding
— Prices
— Standard, special prices
— Gross, net prices
— Price search
— Rules for prices
— Determination of the route within the price
— Issuance of tickets
- E-ticket
— Paper ticket
– PNR estimation, search for the best price
— Automatic ticket issuance
– Ticket issuance by ticket code (semi-automatic)
- Ticket details
— Determining and checking the price in PNR
— Price selection
— Price fixing
— Mandatory elements of issuing tickets
— Ticket status
- Adult
— Youth
— Student
— Pension
— Children's
— baby
- Print command
- PREPAID - a ticket for those departing from abroad
- ticket printer
— Ticket cancellation
– Ticket Cancellation (VOID)
— Ticket refund (PERFUND)
— Change in ticket
- Ticket fees

GILBOA WINDOWS-OFFICE PROGRAMM

— Airlines: regular, charter
— Wholesalers
- Tourist agency
— General sales agent
- IATA - International Air Transport Association
- Codes
— Phonetic transcription
- SHAAL - Israel Travel Agents Union
- DOCKET - client folder in the computer
- Working with "docs"
— VOUCHER- payment obligation (gross, net)
— Settlements with suppliers
— Settlements with clients
- Client's card
— Balance (receipt, account)
— Discounts
- Refund to customer
— Types of payment (cash, credit cards, checks, money transfer)
— Working with currency

Tourist services

— Flights: regular, charter
- Straight without landing and with landing
– Transit (with transfer)
– Docking and non-docking (with an overnight stay)
– Required minimum between flights
– Flight operated by another airline (CODESHARING)
– HOTELS (F.I.T.) – hotels, reservations
- Medical insurance
— Loss and search of luggage, compensation
— Visas, passport control, customs
- Car rental
— Package deals: flight + hotel, flight + car, flight + hotel + car
- civil marriages
— Summer schools
– Sanatorium-resort treatment – ​​SPA
– Ski packages
– Organized tours
– Transfer (transportation)
- Entry tickets
– Trains
- Cruises
– Sea transportation (ferries)

Arie Parnis, tour guide in Israel, I lead individual tours and
group tours in Israel in Russian,
I show Israel through “Jewish eyes”.

I was born in Moscow, I came to Israel in 1989 at the age of 15.
Served as a paratrooper. Education - degree
MA in Israeli History from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Certified tour guide of the Ministry of Tourism, and host
guide of the City of David in Jerusalem in Russian.
Married, father of three, living in Tkoa
on the edge of the Judean Desert, not far from Jerusalem.

All this changed when we started learning Hebrew as a family and attending our first Torah lessons. Then the circumcision union, in an underground apartment with closed curtains. At the age of 14, he began teaching Hebrew at a Sunday school for children of refuseniks. Zionist activity in the USSR was still banned, but they were no longer imprisoned for it.

Aliya to Israel became a natural continuation of this process. Be in your place, live with your people and deal with your problems. This country has become a real home for me.

After leaving school, I studied in Israeli Zionist yeshivas for 8 years. Served in the paratroopers. He completed his first degree in Torah teaching and his second degree in the history of the Jewish people.

Israel tour guide

The connection with excursions in Israel appeared to me almost immediately. My class teacher was a professional guide, and one of the school circles was "Excursions in Jerusalem". Then, I took all our relatives from abroad to these same places. After school, hiking around the country began, in small companies, with a backpack on my back.

In 2000, the hobby turned into a profession. After graduating from the Jerusalem Guide Course, I began to lead tours from Yad Ben Zvi and from the City of David, Israel's leading tourist organizations in Jerusalem. Gained a lot of experience as a guide with school and army groups, with Israeli families and with new repatriates from the CIS countries. In 2006, he graduated with honors from the school of guides from the Ministry of Tourism of Israel, at the Lander Institute. For me, this is not only a job, but also a calling.

Over time, I increasingly began to feel the shortcomings of Russian-speaking tourism in Israel. Unlike the wide cultural range of Hebrew and English group tours, the Russian-speaking street is mostly Christian-themed. Jewish tourism, with a few exceptions, is practically non-existent.

Many Russian-speaking Israelis and tourists from abroad who are interested in the history of the Jewish people and want to experience Israel from the inside often find it difficult to find someone to turn to. It is to these people that my excursions and the activities of this site are addressed.

I offer you private and group tours of Jerusalem (I especially love), individual tours throughout Israel (including Judea and Samaria), private.

I will be glad to show you our country!

The first guide to Israel - he is like a father. Your first, and by the way, your second, and in general impression of the new world, the world of Israel, depends on it. For me, Israel is not just a country - it is a whole universe, where every time I come for a new piece of happiness and a portion of inspiration. Vlad is probably one of the best guides in Israel that I know. You can listen to it for hours, days, months. He begins to speak, and you seem to plunge into a fairy tale - the interweaving of historical facts and your own imagination. Traveling with Telman in Israel is priceless.

I first saw Vlad in Ben Gurion, he was our Taglit guide. He met us - a motley group of 40 Moscow tourists, quickly gathered us in a circle and taught us our first words in Hebrew - "akhim" - brothers and "simcha" - joy. We sang them loudly and circled around.

How did you come up with the idea to stand in a circle with groups right at the airport? I still remember it.

My two colleagues and I came up with this about ten years ago to immediately show that Israel is a different country, and you can do a lot in it - even singing and dancing in the lobby of an international airport.

What did you do in Russia?

I'm from Peter. He graduated from the Herzen Institute, worked as a teacher of Russian language and literature for two years while he was a student. Then it quickly became clear that this did not bring money at all, and I began to do completely different things. By the age of 25, I immigrated to Israel. This was in 2000.

When did you begin to realize that you are a Jew?

At the age of 14 I found out that I was a Jew, but until 25 I had absolutely no idea what it was. The very word "Jew" was familiar, it was often pronounced, but I only learned what it was in Israel. Initially, I began to perceive myself as an Israeli, and only then came the understanding of what Jewry and Judaism are.

What does it mean to you to be Jewish?

Responsibility, no matter how grandiloquent it may sound, is initially before oneself, responsibility before the people of Israel and responsibility in fulfilling the commandments of the Almighty.

What did you do when you arrived in the country?

On the advice, I came to Ashkelon for the Taka program - this is a preparation program for studying at the university, where I lived and studied, but spent all weekends and free time in Jerusalem. I knew right away that this was my place. And then, 10 months later, he moved.

How did you understand that Jerusalem is your city?

There is no logic in this. If you can explain why you like this place or person, then you just like them. There is no logic in love, it cannot be explained.

What did you do after the program?

I began by all means to seek to be drafted into the army. In practice, I achieved this by tediousness - for a day and a half I simply tormented various commanders and thus got to the head of the military table, and he no longer had anywhere to run. I told him that I want, I must, I must, I have rights. And in the end - he served in the landing.

What is the army for you?

The army is not only a service, but also an educational organism. In Russia, this role is played by the school, and rather even the university. When two Israelis meet, the second question is “Where did you serve?”. This is where a bunch of mutual acquaintances, buddies, and friends are revealed, and if a person says that he did not serve, then there is always a second hitch. Most likely, they will not ask why he did not serve, but this pause - a slight misunderstanding will remain.

There are such words as duty and patriotism. Here they are not pronounced, but they are lived. This is exactly what sent me to serve. I believe that I still owe my country in one form or another. By and large, the army is a public conversion, but in the sense of an Israeli, and not in the sense of Judaism.

How did it happen that you became a guide?

After the army, I went to study at the Adassah College in Jerusalem and during my studies, despite the fact that the state paid for three years of study, I worked part-time - after all, you have to live on something. I began to accompany tourist groups in terms of logistics, and work as a madrich, engage in non-formal education. At some point, the guys I worked with saw me as a guide, and said - go and get a special education - that is. professional courses. The fact that I became a guide is more the merit of my then colleagues than my own. They really guided me to this path.

Where and how do you study to be the best guide in Israel?

There are specialized courses from the Ministry of Tourism. I studied in Jerusalem, but from the University of Haifa. Guide courses are two years of study - twice a week classes from five to nine in the evening, and one day a week - a full day excursion to different places in Israel. During these two years of study, you need to get a general base, as well as study geography, world history, politics, geology, botany, archeology, geomorphology, religion, not only Judaism, but also Islam, Christianity and its various directions, Catholicism, Protestantism, Orthodoxy as well as the Baha'i and Druze religions. You also need to study the history of Israel and everything that is connected in one way or another with the Jewish state. This is a very large historical layer: from the creation of the world, the Ottomans and the Crusaders, Byzantium, Ethiopia, the Queen of Sheba, various tribes to the present day. All you need to know is basic. For the first time I studied in a place where it was unpleasant for me if for some reason I missed classes. We had a very strong group of students and teachers, and interesting lessons.

Then all the time you study, study and study again. Each graduate of the course is sent to two exams - written and oral. First, a written exam: in the first part, you need to answer a considerable number of questions according to the American system, and in the second, according to the given data, build a two-day excursion, where the examinee fully describes the route, places of visit and topics of stories, logistics, the history of this place and everything that may be related to it.

If you pass the written part, then you are admitted to the oral exam, where 4 examiners from really working guides sit. The examinee prepares his topic and speaks with it for 5-7 minutes, and then answers questions on all topics of the two-year training. There are no pre-training tickets, you don’t know in advance what will be asked and you must be ready to answer everything. I still remember this exam - everything is very serious, two years of study and the possibility of obtaining a license are at stake. Now I am an examiner myself and I know how strict we can be. But fair.

How did you become the best guide in Israel? And how do you find clients?

I started working with educational companies even before I became a guide, then I worked with a travel company where I was engaged in logistics, from which acquaintances came. I never advertised myself, information passed from mouth to mouth, and there was no shortage of clients.

How is the tourism market doing now? How much does this tour cost?

I read excursions in Russian and Hebrew. And the flow of Russian-speaking tourists has now collapsed, and even those who come are not always ready to pay a guide. The official price of the excursion, appointed by the Ministry of Tourism, starts, depending on the route, from 200-250 dollars, if without a car. If I drive by car, it turns out more expensive. At the same time, 250 dollars is not an amount that goes entirely into the guide's pocket, I pay taxes and deductions from this money. That is why there is a rather pressing problem - hackers.

Who is this?

Hapers are people who have been somewhere with a guide or group, and believe that they are able to conduct excursions and illegally work for money. The Ministry of Tourism is now starting to fight this, because it is believed that the guides are direct representatives of Israel. And the hackers and guides, I don’t even know what to compare with, probably, it’s like a Chinese lighter and branded Zippo.

Do you love your job?

I love my country very much, I am wildly interested in everything related to history, religion, changes. This work does not allow me to slow down in development for a second, stop in studying - I just can’t do it. Now, for example, I completed another degree at the University of Haifa, where I had courses for guides such as "marine archeology". In general, studying in Israel is both interesting and accepted. Ironically skeptical “what are you, an eternal student?” - They just don't get it.

What did you learn, for example, from the course "marine archeology"?

In 2014, divers found a considerable treasure in Caesarea, about two thousand gold coins minted from the Fatemid era - and this is cool, because everything they found in Israel belongs to the country. Now these coins are exhibited in the Museum of Jerusalem.

Tell me what is worth visiting, for those who have been to Israel many times, and have already looked at everything that is recommended in guidebooks?

There are not many such places. At the foot of the Jerusalem mountains there is a considerable accumulation of man-made caves from the time of the uprising against Rome (132-135 AD). The Jews lived in the caves and partisans against the Roman troops. In this uprising, the Jews, under the leadership of military leader Bar Kochba and spiritual leader Rabbi Akiva, liberated Jerusalem. Everyone knows the uprising of 66-73, because Josephus Flavius, as an eyewitness, described it in some detail. Data on the second uprising is an order of magnitude less. In the second century, Bar Kokhba liberated Jerusalem - they minted money, and developed the region in every way, but then Rome again takes its toll, and Jerusalem falls under the rule of the empire.

Jerusalem is destroyed, and Judea is not only destroyed and burned, but also renamed Palestine by the emperor Hadrian. Some of these caves are open to the public, and I often take tourists there to crawl through secret passages and feel like a part of ancient history.

You can also visit one of the most beautiful Jewish necropolises - Beit Shearim. There are amazing caves, sarcophagi and stories.

It is very interesting to see with my own eyes Makhtesh Ramon - yes, it is this Hebrew word that has become the term that all scientists of the world use - this is an erosional formation in a crater in the Negev desert, a washout not far from Mitzpe Ramon. There, on the cut, you can see all the layers of the earth, from the first day after the lava hardened to the present day.

What else do not usually visit tourists?

The ancient people of the kings of the desert, the Nabataeans, who disappeared, left behind several cities. The capital is Petra in Jordan, and the rest are in Israel, in the desert. These cities are Shifta, Nitzana, Avdat, Mamshit, Halutsa. You can come there and see - now these are national reserves, which are protected by the state. There are buildings up to and including the Byzantine and early Muslim periods. Among the buildings, you can also see early churches that organically fit into the cultures of previous eras. Being in these cities, even a person who is far from history can easily understand the choice of a place to build a city, a defensive strategy, a planning system, and so on. In the city of Avdat, for example, there is a system of caves that were used as storage facilities, parts of houses, and water collectors.

The ancient city of Avdat is located in the Negev desert, near Kibbutz Sde Boker. And by the way, another point of visit, which few people get to. There is a very bright, wild natural beauty. From the hill, you can see a desert of completely unusual colors - from black and red to ash-gold.

Kibbutz Sde Boker is known not only for its natural beauties, but also for the fact that, according to his will, the first Prime Minister of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, is buried there. He spent considerable time in Europe, America and Turkey, but saw the future of the Jewish state in the Land of Israel and the development of the desert. That is why he lived in Sde Boker for the last years and was buried there together with his wife Paula.

Not far from this kibbutz is the longest hiking trail in Israel, which in Hebrew is called Shvil Yisrael, or Israel trail. It starts from Kibbutz Dan in the north and ends in Eilat. It takes 2-2.5 months to complete this route, 1040 km long. The trail captures most of the beauties of Israel: streams, rivers, desert, mountains, forests, castles of the Crusaders. Some make it in pieces, but almost anywhere, it goes through absolutely magical places.

Crusader castles, it's very interesting, where are they located?

For example, in the north of Israel, 35 km from Haifa, there is the Monfort castle, which was the residence of the Grand Masters of the Teutonic Order. Another point associated with the Crusaders, which is usually not reached, is Karnei Hittin, which is located next to Lake Keneret or, as it is also called, the Sea of ​​Galilee. On July 4, 1187, the famous Battle of Hattin took place at the foot of this hill. The troops of the great warrior Sultan Salah ad-Din and the army of the Crusaders, led by the King of the Kingdom of Jerusalem Guy De Lusignan, clashed in battle. That battle ended with the victory of the Muslims and, in fact, the beginning of the decline of the kingdom of the crusaders. In the same year, the troops of Salah ad-Din took Jerusalem.

After capturing the holy city, Richard the Lionheart realized that he needed to strengthen his position in the ports of Acre and on September 7, 1191, during the Third Crusade, the Battle of Arsuf took place. There were about 40 thousand people in the army of the crusaders, and about 50 thousand people in the army of Muslims - the Ayyubids of Salah ad-Din. The city of Arsuf, not far from modern Herzliya, the site of the last decisive battle between the army of the Crusaders and Muslims, in which the latter won, is also interesting to visit. Now there is the Archaeological Park of Apollonia.

Another point is located on the road from the Dead Sea to Jerusalem, literally a ten-minute drive from Jericho. The place that Muslims mark as the tomb of the prophet Moses - in Arabic - Nabi Musa. According to Jewish and Christian tradition, the location of Moses' burial is unknown. The Torah ends with the words - “And Moshe, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord; and he was buried in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-Peor; and no one knows his grave to this day” (Deut. 34:6). According to one version, based on political motives: Muslims created in the 13th century a place marking the grave of the prophet: since in Islam and Judaism the lunar calendar is used, which moves, and the day of memory of Moses is fixed, this balanced the number of Muslims, Christians and Jews in Jerusalem during the spring holidays Easter and Pesach.

If we talk about cultural heritage, the Museum of Jewish Music has recently opened in Jerusalem. There are collected instruments that Jews have played at all times and all over the world.

Tell me, please, your favorite guide tale?

I used to run LiveJournal, from which someone once ripped out all the stories, put them together and gave the title “From the Notes of an Israeli Guide” and sent them to roam the Internet. But, since you are asking for one that was not published, then here is one of the most relevant.

I had a group of American Jews, we were in the Judean desert, on Masada. The dominant character in the group was Sarah, a very large and very noisy woman. And here we are standing in front of the descent from Masada, and suddenly we notice that Sarah's husband, a quiet, little peasant, is gone. And then Sarah begins to shout to the whole Judean desert:
- Moses, where are you? People walk in the desert and want to go to Jerusalem, but you don’t understand where you are wandering! To me, Moses!!!

My name is Anna Berova. I am a journalist, diver, marketer and PR specialist. Now what I do is fashionable to call "communication specialist". I love to write, and even more - Israel. I don't even know which order is correct. Writing about Israel, talking about its beauties, mysteries, secrets, people, customs, traditions is a real pleasure for me. I am sure that you will find it interesting, pleasant and useful to read.