Israel is a small country with a remarkable number of World Heritage Sites. Here they are, with a tip on how to fit each one into a trip.
Masada (2001): Herod's desert fortress above the Dead Sea and the last stand of the Jewish rebels against Rome. Go early. The Old City of Acre (2001): an Ottoman walled port town sitting on top of an almost complete Crusader city. The White City of Tel Aviv (2003): some 4,000 buildings in the Bauhaus / International Style, the largest such collection in the world.
The Biblical Tels - Megiddo, Hazor and Beer Sheba (2005): ancient mounds with city gates, palaces and brilliant water systems; Megiddo is the Armageddon of the Book of Revelation. The Incense Route and Desert Cities of the Negev (2005): Avdat, Mamshit, Shivta and Haluza, Nabataean stops on the same trade route that made Petra rich.
The Bahai Holy Places in Haifa and Western Galilee (2008): the terraced gardens and golden-domed shrine on Mount Carmel, and the shrine of Baha'u'llah near Acre. The Carmel caves - Nahal Me'arot (2012): a million years of human evolution in one valley. The caves of Maresha and Bet Guvrin (2014): hundreds of man-made caves in the Judean lowlands. The Necropolis of Bet She'arim (2015): the burial caves of Jewish sages of the Roman period.
The Old City of Jerusalem and its walls is also on the list, inscribed in 1981 at the proposal of Jordan.
Our UNESCO Gems of the South tour combines several of these sites in one day, and our Haifa & Acre tour covers two more.
Keep reading
- HistoryThe Crusaders in the Holy Land: Castles, Knights and KingdomsFrom the capture of Jerusalem in 1099 to the fall of Acre in 1291 - and the castles they left behind.
- HistoryThe Knights' Halls of Acre: A Crusader City Under the CityGothic halls buried under an Ottoman citadel, a secret Templar tunnel and a UNESCO old city by the sea.
- HistoryA Timeline of the Holy Land: From Canaan to Modern IsraelEvery era in one page - the empires, kingdoms and peoples whose layers you see on every tour.