Inbar Day Trips to Mt. Arbel and Safed

A couple visiting from Houston who stayed next door to us in the kibbutz suggested we visit Mt. Arbel. In turn we sent them to our swimming area at the Sea of Galilee!  There are four villages around this area and Mt. Arbel itself appears higher than it actually is. The peak, at 181 metres above sea level (380 metres above the surrounding area), dominates the surroundings (much of the area is below sea level) and from the lookout atop the mountain, almost all of the Galilee into the Golan Heights including Safed, Tiberias and most of the Sea of Galilee, is visible.  The area was declared a nature reserve in 1967 and the declaration covers the immediate areas around the cliff as well as the mountain itself.  Nearby are the ruins of an ancient Jewish settlement with a Synagogue from the fourth century C.E. with extend pews and columns, and dug into the mountain itself are a number of cliff dwellings. The extant cliff dwellings are from the 17th century and were built by the 

Druze.  We hiked around the top of the hill the day we visited because the winds were too severe to hike down (and we arrived later than the 3 hour window required).  

A display at peak is a replica of the wooden basket used to haul workers 

and supplies up the cliff before there was access by road. As well the 

site is prominently featured in the Bible.  The battle described in 

Hosea is between Assyrians and Israelites, though the blood 

didn’t stop flowing with the Assyrians; The historian Josephus 

who describes the mountain as being captured with massive executions. 

In 39 B.C.E. came Herod the Great dropped his soldiers 

down in baskets for closer proximity in their mission of 

slaughtering the Jews hiding in caves in the face of the mountain. 

Some associate the Biblical reference to “land of the shadow of death” 

as a reference to the shadow cast by Mt. Arbel.

View of small Arab village from the top of the cliff

Danny on the edge with his camera

Another village in the distance

Me grabbing the rail at a lookout so as not to be blown away.

Reconstruction of a home in Safed, another town we visited