The Hills of Gilboa and Har Barkan

Since today is the last day of פסח Pesakh ("Passover") here in Israel, it is a holiday. We decided to drive to the Hills of Gilboa. We went to הר ברקן Har Barkan ("Mt. Barkan") where some beautiful deep purple irises bloom every year. But, this year, we were too late, and they were already gone. However, there were still many other lovely flowers, and the view was great since it was quite a clear day. Here are some pictures I took there.

Here's a nice shot of some interesting purple flowers:

These flowers are quite small, but the light makes them sparkle like gold in the photo. Notice the tiny bug on one of them:

These pink flowers are quite small, and there are also a lot of them in the pasture near our house:

Here's an interesting insect just sitting on the rock in the trail:

I saw a few thistles like this one. Can you spot the 2 bugs in this picture?

These pink hollyhocks are in bloom all over the place right now!

This is the look-out tower at the top of Har Barkan:

I shot the next four photos from the top of the tower pictured above.

This is the view looking east toward the Jordan River Valley. The city on the left is Beit She'an, one of the 10 towns of the Decapolis in Roman times. The hills in the background are on the other side of the Jordan River in the Kingdom of Jordan.

This is the view looking south. Har Barkan is just north of שומרון Shomron ("Samaria"), the more accurate name for the northern part of the so-called "West Bank", the part of the Palestine Mandate that was illegally occupied by the Kingdom of Jordan from 1948 until 1967. In the foreground of this shot and on the left, you can see part of the separation barrier. If you look carefully, on the right side you can see an Arab village in Shomron, complete with 2 minarets.

This is the view looking west. In the distance in this photo, you can barely see הר כרמל Har Karmel ("Mt. Carmel"). At its right end is the upper part of the city of חיפה Haifa, right by the Mediterranean Sea.

Here's the view looking north. In the foreground is the parking lot. You can barely see the roof of our little red car at the near end. Further up in the shot, you can see the fertile Jezreel Valley. Still further back, on the left, is Har Tavor ("Mt. Tabor"). On a REALLY clear day, you might be able to see Tsfat. I think it would be a little to the right of the center. It WAS clear enough to see Har Tavor from Tsfat today.

And, finally, I just couldn't resist. Here's a nice shot of our wonderful new car, sitting right there in the parking lot!

I want to end by commenting on what these views show about Israel. The first thing that should strike you is how small it is. From this one point, you can see Jordan, much of Shomron, nearly to the Mediterranean, and nearly up to Lebanon and Syria. Or, to put it another way, you can see almost all of northern Israel and parts of several neighboring countries.