Jezreel Valley

A Biblical tel with an extensive underground water system, and one of the most important and most impressive destinations for travellers interested in the history and archaeology of the region. It represents a large city mount on the southern edge of the Jezreel Valley and has been the site of several major battles. Megiddo appears on the UNESCO World Heritage list as part of the joint Bibical tels listing, alongside Hazor and Beer Sheva.

The summit of the mount rises to a height of about 60 meters from the plane of the Jezreel valley next to it. The site is strategically near a main crossroads. Archaeological artifacts indicate that there was a settlement at this site as early as the 4th millennium BC. You can walk through an underground water storage system similar to that in Jerusalem. The site has a good view of the Jezreel Valley's landscape, the Gilboa mountain, the Givat Hamore hill, Mount Tabor and the Nazareth mountain range.

Megiddo is the site of biannual summer excavations conducted by Tel Aviv University and a consortium of overseas institutions - volunteers are welcomed (fees apply for participation and college credit) on each campaign from all over the world. There is a restaurant and several kiosks within the Visitors' Centre. Bring water in summer! The site is low-lying and virtually without shade, so it gets very hot. It is a popular pilgrimage site for Evangelical Christians, who believe that this is the site where the apocalypse will begin.

An archaeological site containing the remains of a 6th century synagogue in Kibbutz Beit Alfa, at the northern slopes of Mount Gilboa. The site was discovered in 1928 during the excavation of a water canal to the nearby Kibbutz Hephzibah.

A recreational park near Mt. Gilboa from which Harod Spring floats from a cave into a stream. The spring's Arabic name is Ain Jalut, and it was near this spring that in 1260 the Mameluk army defeated the Mongols, the first defeat ever suffered by the vast Mongol empire.

An Israeli art museum founded in 1937 at kibbutz Ein Harod Ihud.

This museum in Kibbutz Yifat presents the story of the kibbutzim in the Jezreel Valley. This may be the best place to learn about the kibbutz, Israel's unique form of collective living. Kids will enjoy the ridable tractors.

A cave used in the 1940s to train the elite Palmach militia which would become the core of the new Israeli army. There are organized tours.

On the site of a station from the old Jezreel Valley railway, opened in 1904. There is a museum with old train cars, a reconstructed locomotive engine, and an entertaining video.