Saturday, March 19, 2016

The Grottos / Mediterranean Sea

Waiting for the documentary to start
The Grottos is an area in Northern Israel at the Syrian boarder.
Getting on the cable car
We took a small cable car down to some caves that the Mediterranean sea flows through.
I think the contrast of the deep blue water and white rock is beautiful
There is a maze of walkways through the mountain that lead to areas where the sea has made pools.
Exploring
If you go at the right time of year and day some wild life will take refuge there. Unfortunately the day we visited there the waters were empty.
I kept a lookout for wildlife ... I was a little disappointed
The trails also led to ledges on the mountain where we could look out over the Mediterranean sea. The view was breathtaking.
What a view!

While exploring the tunnels I found an entry way that led to an area that was originally planned to be a railway to connect Lebanon and Israel. The tunnel was not completed and is now sealed. I didn't have enough time to go very far in this tunnel so I don't know the end looks like. 
Sign at the beginning of the tunnel

Meant to be a train tunnel ... how cool!!
After exploring the tunnels through the mountain side we took the cable car up to a stairway that led to the gate at the Syrian boarder. With all the unrest that is going on with Syria it was sobering to realize that we were so close to that area.
Boarder gate into Syria
Coming up next time ... En Gedi; another one of my favorite and most spiritually moving stops in Israel (right in line with Mount Carmel).