The busiest seasons in Jerusalem and Bethlehem are the Christmas and Easter holidays.

Comfortable clothing is always important when traveling. However when visiting the Holy Land’s many religious sites, you should dress somewhat modestly. For example, women and men should not wear shorts into a mosque and at any other religious sites. Women are asked to cover their hair when entering a mosque. Comfortable low-heeled shoes are best […]

Situated in the Mediterranean, Holy Land has a temperate sea climate. April and May bring some of the most beautiful wildflowers in the world. Wild poppies, jonquils, irises, and other vibrant species paint the hillsides with color during the short spring season. The rainy season in the Holy Land is between November and April. Occasionally […]

Dionysus (a.k.a. Bacchus) was a god of wine, beer and hallucinogenic mushrooms, whose cult included phenomena of uninhibited ecstasy (think of a rock concert). His cult was closely associated with the worship of the Roman emperor. He was famous, above all, for transforming things into wine. Recent excavations in Sepphoris and Scythopolis (Beth Shean) have […]

The little village of Bethany with the adjoining village of Bethpage rest on the Eastern slope of the Mount of Olives. It was and is the area from which the Palm Sunday procession began. A beautiful little church commemorates three events in the life of the Lord. 1. Here he stayed at the home of […]

Deep in the Syro-African rift valley, at almost 900 feet below sea level, lies this Palestinian Arab city, the Biblical “city of palm trees” (Deuteronomy 34:1-3). It owes its long existence in part to an excellent spring (4.4 cubic meters per minute). At one time purified by the prophet Elisha (2 Kings 2:19-22), the spring […]

In Scripture, the Messiah is called “Immanuel,” or “God with us” (Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:23). Immanuel came to live in Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee. Back in those days when one went to the shuk (open market) to buy grapes, he might just happen to see Jesus also buying grapes. Imagine the King of […]

“The third time he said to him: ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’.” (John 21:17) A chapel on the lake shore – a short distance from the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and the Fishes – marks the site where, according to Christian tradition, Jesus appeared to his disciples for the […]