Haifa, Part 1

Standing in the Bahá‘í gardens

(Sami here) We docked in Haifa’s harbor in the morning and boarded our tour bus for a short ride up Mt. Carmel to a fortress of a church called the Stella Maris Monastery, also called the Monastery of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

We could see up Mt Carmel from the port

In the 12th century, during the time of the Crusaders, groups of religious hermits began to inhabit the caves of this area in imitation of Elijah the Prophet. Eventually they founded the Carmelite order of monks. The monastery was built over the grotto where the prophet Elijah is said to have lived. The church as it now stands was built in 1836.

Under the alter is the entrance to one of the caves where the original Carmelites lived

Pictures of Old Testiment Bible storie,s including the prophet Elijah ascending to heaven in a fiery chariot, are on the church's dome.

We did not stay long in the Mt Carmel Church as it was not really on our itinerary. After about 15 minutes, off we went to see a little bit of the Bahá‘í Hanging Gardens. The Bahá‘í religion is a fairly new religion and it teaches the essential worth of all religions, and the unity and equality of all people. I was excited to see it because years ago I drew pictures of all of the great Bahá‘í temples for a friend who was writing a book about them as a trade for her giving guitar lessons to Sheng.

The Bahá‘í faith is the fastest growing religion in the world. The gardens are meticulously kept.