Haifa climbs the northern slope of Mount Carmel in tiers, and halfway up, a golden dome catches the light above a staircase of gardens that tumbles all the way down to the old German Colony and the port. This is the Bahá'í World Centre, and the dome crowns the Shrine of the Báb, the founder figure of the Bahá'í faith, whose remains were brought here from Persia and interred on the mountainside. The nineteen terraces around it, with clipped lawns, gravel paths, cypresses and fountains, are among the most meticulously kept gardens anywhere, and together with the shrine of Bahá'u'lláh near Acre across the bay they form a UNESCO World Heritage site. The Persian connection runs through everything here, from the faith's origins in nineteenth-century Iran to the formal geometry of the planting.
Below the gardens, Ben Gurion Avenue runs straight down to the sea through the German Colony, founded in the 1860s by the Templers, a German Protestant sect who built solid stone houses with red tiled roofs and Bible verses carved over the doors. Many of those houses are now restaurants and cafés, and the avenue lines up with the terraces so precisely that standing at the bottom you see the whole composition stacked above you. Haifa as a whole is a working city, a port and an industrial centre with a mixed Jewish and Arab population, and it has a less frantic feel than Tel Aviv or Jerusalem.
Riding in Haifa itself is steep, busy and full of hairpins, as streets switchback up the mountain with parked cars on both sides and buses grinding along. The rewards are on the ridge: the road along the top of the Carmel runs through pine forest and Druze villages such as Daliyat al-Karmel, with views down to the coastal plain and, on a clear day, north toward the Lebanese border. The Carmel forest suffered a devastating fire in 2010, and you will still see its traces. Summer heat is intense, so the cool of early morning suits the mountain best.
Fuel, food and every service are easily found in Haifa. For a meal, the German Colony or the Wadi Nisnas neighbourhood offer hummus, grilled meat and Arab sweets. The gardens have strict rules on dress and behaviour, and the upper and lower terraces are reached on guided routes at set times, so check before you go. Then sit with a coffee at the bottom of the avenue and enjoy the view of a mountain wearing a crown.