Old City of Acre and Sites of Human Evolution at Mount Carmel:

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Old City of Acre

   Acre has been a port for roughly four thousand years, but the city you walk through today is a layered one. Beneath the Ottoman streets lies the headquarters of the Crusader kingdom's last years, when Acre was the capital and a thriving trading harbour, with the Knights Hospitaller building a vast complex of vaulted halls that were buried and forgotten for centuries. In 1291 the Mamluks took the city, and with that the Crusader presence on the mainland ended. The tunnels and halls have been dug out and restored, and walking through the knights' halls is eerie and cool even in August.

   Read the complete Old City of Acre write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Old City of Acre is where the day begins. Next is Persian Quarter.

2. 2. Persian Quarter

   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.

   Read the complete Persian Quarter write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Persian Quarter comes up about 25 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sites of Human Evolution at Mount Carmel:.

3. 3. Sites of Human Evolution at Mount Carmel:

   In the caves of Nahal Me'arot, on the western slope of Mount Carmel near the coast south of Haifa, people lived on and off for half a million years, and both Neanderthals and early modern humans left their bones here. The four caves, Tabun, Jamal, el-Wad and Skhul, contain one of the longest records of human evolution anywhere, and they were listed as a World Heritage Site in 2012. Tabun alone has layers spanning hundreds of thousands of years. The Natufian culture, among the first people to settle in villages before farming, also left traces in el-Wad.

   Read the complete Sites of Human Evolution at Mount Carmel: write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 47 km into the recorded legs you reach Sites of Human Evolution at Mount Carmel:. Next is back through Persian Quarter.

4. 4. back through Persian Quarter

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Persian Quarter write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Persian Quarter, late in the day. Next is Old City of Acre.

5. 5. Old City of Acre

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Old City of Acre write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Old City of Acre. That is the ride.