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At the southern end of a curve in the
coast leading north toward modern Haifa,
adjacent to where the Oceanographic and
Limnological Institute is located today,
long ago there existed a splendid harbor
city that from the 1st century BCE appears
in the sources by the name Shikmona.
Excavations have revealed continuous
settlement from the 16th century BCE to the
return of the Jews from Babylonian exile in
537 BCE. The advent of the Persian Kingdom
at this time led to development along the
entire Carmel coast in service to the
economic interests of the Phoenicians and
Persians. From the 4th century BCE up until
at least the 7th century CE Arab-Muslim
conquest, Shikmona emerged as the chief city
of the Haifa and Carmel territory. Tel
Shikmona has yielded an Egyptian tomb;
luxury items from the Canaanite era (the
Bronze Age); a 6th century BCE Persian
citadel; and oil presses, colored mosaic
floors and other artifacts from a prosperous
Talmudic-era Jewish town. Many of the
ancient artifacts unearthed at Tel Shikmona
are now on display in Haifa museums.
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Scholars theorize that a city by the name
of Haifa, located on land stretching from
today's Rambam Health Care Campus to the
Jewish cemetery on Jaffa Street, was founded
in the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE beside the
bigger and wealthier Shikmona. Its ancient
shoreline followed a cove providing calm
anchorage. Around this cove, a settlement
developed whose residents engaged in
fishing, coastal trading and farming. Of
this city, only a complex of tombs excavated
in the kurkar rock and in use from the 2nd
until the 6th or 7th centuries remains. A
portion of this burial complex has been
preserved at the edge of the park on al-Atika
Street.
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The cave, attributed to the Prophet
Elijah, is carved into the mountain rock
above the junction of the Haifa-Tel Aviv
highway and Allenby Street. It is this site
that has given Haifa its religious
significance for Judaism, Christianity and
Islam. A modern view holds that Elijah's
Cave was sanctified as early as the
beginning of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman
Empire) period. All three religions ascribe
magical powers to the cave, and pilgrims
believe that it has healing powers for
mental illness and barrenness.
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A walk along a short gully descending
from the Carmel ridge to the coastal plain
brings the visitor to Nahal Siah, the cradle
of activity of the monastic Carmelite Order,
founded in Haifa in the 13th century during
the Crusader period. These Christian
ascetics found there good springs, some
land, and seclusion. They lived in caves and
niches, worked the mountain terraces, and
met for prayer. Over the years, they
developed the gully and its slopes, and at
its center built a fortified church,
watchtowers and irrigation ditches, whose
remains may be seen today. Many centuries
later, the Arab Khayat family established a
coffee house and planted a typical eastern
fruit garden or bustan, which became one of
the most sought-after recreation spots in
Haifa during the British Mandate.
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When the Crusaders withdrew from the Holy
Land in 1291, the Carmelite monks left with
them. In Europe, the monks spread word of
their order, which for the next several
hundred years sustained a vigorous existence
far from its place of origin on the slopes
of Mount Carmel. The order's return to Haifa
was made possible in the 17th century,
during the Ottoman period, when the Bedouin
Turabay family ruled Mount Carmel and Haifa
and practiced tolerance toward non-Muslim
inhabitants. At first, the Carmelites tried
to establish themselves in Elijah's Cave,
but were chased up the mountain by Muslim
dervishes and founded their monastery on the
mountaintop instead. In 1821, the ruler of
Acre blew up the monastery. The order
rebuilt a new monastery, which was
consecrated in 1836 and stands in place
still today.
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This mosque today stands as a symbol of
the Muslim presence in Haifa, which, like
The City itself, has experienced the ebb and
flow of fortune over the centuries. The
Islamic Arab, Mamluk and Ottoman empires
have all left their mark on The City.
Al Jarina Mosque was apparently established
in the 18th century with the founding of
modern Haifa. Today, it stands isolated
among modern office buildings, but until
1948 it was an important focus of Muslim
life in Haifa.
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The site of Haifa's old Christian quarter
at or in the neighborhood of today's Paris
Square receives its name from four 19th
century churches built during a time of
intense rivalry among Haifa's various
Christian denominations. These are the large
Carmelite Church, which gave the Roman
Catholic community a firm commercial and
social hold near the concentration of Arab
residents in Haifa and the centers of
commerce and the port; two Greek Orthodox
churches, St. Mary's and Saint Ann's,
representative of the large Greek Catholic
presence in Haifa today; and the Maronite
Church.
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The German Templers arrived in the Holy
Land in 1868, inspired by religious fervor.
Of the seven colonies that they were to
establish in the Holy Land, the Haifa colony
(est. 1869) was the first and became the
largest and most important. It was also the
first planned farming village in Eretz
Israel. It featured a 30-meter wide
tree-lined avenue along a main axis running
north-south on a moderate slope at the foot
of the Carmel (today's Ben Gurion Street)
with, on either side, handsome houses of
dressed stone topped by red gable roofs,
beside which were farm buildings, workshops
and large gardens. Although the adjacent
farms and gardens have disappeared with
history, the solid and handsome Templer
houses, and the wide and lovely avenue along
which they were built, are today at the
heart of an economically thriving commercial
neighborhood that is among Haifa's most
beautiful, whose open view up to the Bahá'i
Gardens on Mount Carmel and down to the sea
has been lovingly preserved.
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The Bahá'i faith has been associated with
Israel since the late 1800's when its
founder, Bahá'u'lláh, was banished from his
native Persia and eventually made his way to
Acre, at that time an Ottoman penal colony.
The 19 terraced gardens gliding down the
northwest slope of Mount Carmel, and the
monumental, gold-domed Shrine of the Báb
that is the burial place of the Bahá'i
religion's martyr-herald, are the
architectural and landscape jewel in Haifa's
crown. The architect explains:
"The Shrine of the Báb is envisaged as a
precious gem, for which the terraces provide
the setting, like a golden ring for a
precious diamond."
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Among the many religious communities in
Haifa, the place of the Ahmadia religion
stands out, with its concentration of
faithful in Kababir Village. The Ahmadis
arrived in Eretz Israel at the turn of the
20th century from their center in Damascus
following the rise of hostility against them
in Syria, and transferred the hub of their
activity to Kfar Kababir, then a Muslim
village on the western spur of the Carmel,
whose residents joined the religion.
Believers came to the village from other
places, and since then Kababir has
functioned as the main center of Ahmadia in
the Middle East. The village has become a
Haifa suburb, and has recently witnessed the
building of a spacious mosque and communal
centre with twin towers overlooking the
southern approaches to The City.
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The Haifa East railway station is small
and secondary, but it has a glorious past.
The laying of the line, which ran to
Damascus, elevated Haifa to the status of
the third most important city in the
country. At that time, the Turkish
government was involved in the mighty
enterprise of laying a railway line to
transport pilgrims to the Muslim holy places
Mecca and Madina. Many migrants were
attracted by this enterprise, investment in
land and commerce was stimulated, and Haifa
was transformed into the most important city
in the Middle Eastern geographical array.
The station was inaugurated in October 1905,
and two years later was extended by a
modern, stone jetty with cranes for
unloading large cargoes. In the British
Mandate period, the Hijaz line was further
extended, making Haifa an important link on
the long stretch from Egypt to Syria and
Lebanon.
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In the first decade of the century, the
Ha'ezra Society of German Jews, with offices
in Berlin, resolved to work for the welfare
and social betterment of Eretz Israel by
establishing an institution for higher
technological education. Haifa was chosen
because, with the inauguration of the Hijaz
Railway Station, The City promised to become
an important center for industry and
technology. The handsome building of local
stone rose loftily above the old city and
became the social, cultural and communal
center of the Jews of Haifa. It was here
that a resolution was passed in 1920 to
establish the Histadrut (general trade
union). Studies commenced in 1925. The
site's 93 meter well served as the Haganah's
main weapons cache. The original building
now houses the National Museum of Science
and Technology, the new Technion – Israel
Institute of Technology campus having been
built in Haifa's Neve Sha'anan district.
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