Baha' i Gardens in Haifa

From our room at the Dan Panorama in Haifa,  there is a view of some very interesting structures.

These stand as part of the Baha'i Gardens, which are officially recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

I had spotted the entrance to the gardens while hiking by and learned that there was an English tour at noon today.  So, I made that my top priority for the day, despite the obvious haze in the sky.

I don't know if I mentioned this, but when we arrived, we could barely see the skyscrapers in Tel Aviv as we drove by.  We soon learned that the area has been experiencing a lot of dust storms, which are exactly that…..dust. Not so great for an asthmatic, but I was sure to bring my inhaler.

We had couple of clear days, but it was obvious when I awoke this morning, that today was not going to be one of them.  But, that certainly didn't stop me from setting out to see the gardens.

Let me offer a brief explanation about this place.

The Gardens are considered to be a holy place of pilgrimage for followers of the Baha'i Faith.  The premise of their faith is that all religions are united and stem from God equally.  It is believed that all significant religious leaders (Mohammed, Christ, Buddha, Moses, etc. and Baha'i Allah) are messengers from God sent at different times of history.
The gold-domed building is a shrine which holds the remains of the Bab, who was a herald for Baha'i Allah.

I was sure to be at the gate way before noon, as I did not want to miss the opportunity to walk through the gardens.  While waiting, I met a very lovely young lady from Australia, who is a lawyer, but took 10 months off to tour the world.  She certainly had some interesting stories to share while we waited in line.

When the gate opened, I was surprised to see how many people had congregated.  Were there really that many English speaking tourists in the area?  Where had they been hiding?

One woman asked, in Spanish, if she could have a Spanish tour.  The sign outside distinctly spelled out that today's noon tour would be in English.  Come to think of it, the sign was written in Hebrew, Arabic and English…not Spanish…so perhaps she was confused.

But as I stood in line, I heard people speaking in a vast array of languages.  Very few were actually speaking English.  The group was so large that it had to be split into two with different tour guides.

First, we were given the rules:  no food, no gum, no drinks,  cell phones must be turned off.  Since it was  a shrine, modest clothes were a must. And, absolutely everyone must stick with the tour.  There were to be NO wanderers!!

 There were 700 steps and we were free to take photos, but it was suggested that we not attempt to photograph while walking down the stairs.  That seemed reasonable.

The gardens were amazing, laid out on this terraced area of Mt. Carmel.

The curved shrubbery added a distinct charm between gardens.

and the array of colors with cedar really accented the hills.

About half way down,  we stopped to take some photos.  Here you see an administrative building that holds the religious archives for the faith.  That, of course,  impressed me. It was built in the 1950's to model the Parthenon and we were told that every religious document from the foundation are enclosed in the building.

At this point, the guide gave us some interesting details.  There are 2200 lights along the paths in the garden, and they are lit every night as soon as the sun begins to set.  Before the Bab was tortured to death, he had been held in a prison without light for 3 years.  As a result, the garden was planned to always be lit, either by day and the sunshine, or by night with the lights, so that the Bab would never have to experience darkness again.

There was also a lot of water, some cascading down the recessed sides of the steps and some spraying in numerous fountains in the gardens.

The guide told us that water was significant to the faith, because without water - there is no life.

As you look down the hill, you may notice that the gardens are set out symmetrically.  We were informed that symmetry symbolized equality.  And, since the faith believed that all religions are equal under the eyes of God, that was the purpose of the preciseness in this part of the garden.

As we got to the bottom though, I did wonder about those cedar trees in front of the shrine

It doesn't seem symmetric to me.

It was at this point that the tour guide informed us that we would be continuing down to the bottom and that we needed to exit at the gate.

Let me just say that this was NOT in my plans!  Someone then asked about walking around the paths, and it was then made clear that the only way to see the gardens was by tour.  This could explain why the guide became annoyed when a couple went walking down one of the pathways while she was talking.  The rule about sticking with the group was now making sense.

 I honestly had not realized this, and had originally planned to go back another day and just walk around without the tour.

And now it became clear to me just why there were so many Non-English speaking people on the tour!
They just wanted to see the gardens!  I would consider this for another day, but my luck would have it that the guide would ask me something in Arabic, and I'd have to fake being mute.  Probably NOT a good idea.

So, I was a bit disappointed that I had not taken more photos while on the tour, but that paled in comparison to my sudden realization that I would have to once again make  my way up that hill to the hotel.

But we weren't being rushed out, so I spent some time admiring the gardens at the base of the shrine.

The desert garden was definitely interesting.

and I loved the combination of colors

and these rows were certainly unique.

At the very bottom, I could get a closeup shot of the shrine.

As I headed towards the exit, I watched these two very entertaining women attempting to photograph each other at the same spot in the gardens.  They were a bit rolly polly, and kind of waddled when they ran, and they were certainly having a grand time.

I asked them if they would like me to take a picture of the two of them together.  (remember…this was the English speaking tour.)  Neither understood me.

So, I motioned with my camera.  Well…….you should have seen their faces light up!

 The one woman handed me her point and shoot, and began running around the flower garden.  Her friend was about half way around, when she came running back, and hurriedly handed me her fancy camera, pointed to the button, and quickly ran to join her friend.

I photographed them with each camera, and, if you ask me, the photos came out great!

The next thing I knew, one of the women spotted my camera and wanted to take my photo.  Well, how could I refuse that offer?

So, she took this:

I thanked her and went to take my camera, but this woman was clearly ready for a photo shoot.

She placed me next to this plant, pointed the camera at me and said "Cheers!" OK, so I went along with it.

Then, she grabbed my arm and stuck me in a different place so that the shrine would be behind my head.  (I've cropped the photo so that you can actually see the shrine.)

This time she said "Cheese". 

And she would not take the photo until I actually said Cheese, which explains my facial expression.

This lady was a real hoot, and would probably have gone on for quite some time as she seemed to really be enjoying this opportunity to show off her photography skills.

I sensed an Eastern European sound to their speech, and, on a whim, asked "Kde ste?" Which means "where are you from" in Slovak.  Well, she understood me and said "Rusyn", which I knew to be Russia.

Unfortunately, that was about the limit of my communication abilities with her.  We smiled at each other and waved good-bye and I went off on my journey to climb the mountain.

And, obviously, I made it to the top.  But, I've got to say……it wasn't easy!