Bahai Gardens, Lunch and Mount Carmel (C)

Bahai Gardens and Shrine

The Bahai faith started in Iran and split off from the Moslem Shiite faith. It's founder, Bahaullah was exiled from Iran at the end of the 19th century and came to Akko and Haifa in Israel.  He thought Mount Carmel was very beautiful and wanted Bab, the forerunner of the faith, to be buried on Mount Carmel. 20 years later the bones of Bab were buried in Haifa and this area became the center of the Bahai religion.  The shine built in 1953 is showing in this photo at the end of the gardens.

Our group had lunch together each day. Usually it would cost about 15 US dollars.  The food tasted delicious.

Lots of salads

Felafel(fried ball of ground chickpeas served with hummus), chicken schnitzel and pita bread

We were ready for lunch after hiking all morning.

Statue of the Prophet Elijah on the top of Mount Carmel -1Kings 18:19-39 Elijah had his contest with the prophets of Ba'al on Mount Carmel.

Yehuda pointing things out to us in the valley from the top of Mount Carmel.

An olive grove on the side of Mount Carmel. This mountain has lots of trees and has vegetation because it gets the dew from the Mediterranean Sea. The "dews from Carmel" used as a metaphor for God's blessings on the Latter-day Saints (D&C 128:19)

Top of Mount Carmel

Muhraka Monastery situated on the highest part of  Mount Carmel. The Order of the Carmelites is a Catholic religious order which was founded on Mount Carmel, the traditional home of the Prophet Elijah at the time of the crusades. Muhraka means in Arabic "place of burning."  The bible tells that a fire came down from the sky to burn the sacrifice offered by Elijah at the time of his battle with the prophets of Ba'al.  1Kings 18:19-39