Tour Guide in the Holy Land
My first tour, as a Tour Guide in the Holy Land of Israel, took place in June. Almost a year after I received my tour guide license from the Israeli Ministry of Tourism. The examinations were done in the middle of the Corona crisis, wearing a face mask. At that time the mental tunnel, before the country would reopen to tourism, seemed rightfully very long and dark. Maybe not the best conditions for starting a career as a tour guide.
Fortunately, I took this course for fun! A gift to myself. During the two years of studying, I realized it was the best gift I have ever given myself! To experience this fantastic country, with many thousands of years of history, in depth for two years. I kept falling in love in this multifaceted country over and over again. The Holy Land; containing the most holy places for the three largest religions, as well as the country where our ancestors wandered through on their way up from Africa, the cradle of humanity. There is no end to historical things, which are dug up in this country on an everyday basis.
To guide tourists in Israel, you must complete a two year long course, two days a week, where you study everything from geology, history, archeology to religion and politics. One day a week of lectures at the university and another day for field studies. In total more than 80 field study days in various places around Israel; from Eilat and the Negev desert in the south, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in the centre, to the Sea of Galilee, Galilee and the Golan Heights in the north. The teachers being experts in their fields: from doctors in Islam, Judaism and Christianity to archaeologists and professors in history and politics.
After two years of study, you are called to the Israeli Ministry of Tourism for a three-hour written test. After you have passed the written test, you will again be called to take an oral test. Only after you have passed both of these tests will you receive your license and be able to start guiding in the Holy Land. Except for Italy, there is no other country in the world with such comprehensive studies in order to become a tour guide.
Guiding in the mosque of Al-Jazzar 
Al JAzzar Mosque 
Guiding in the Templars Tunnel of Acre 
Khan a-Shawarda in Acre
My first tour as a guide took place in the historic city of Acre, with an amazing group of people! Acre, a city that has been a very important port city for several thousand years. A UNESCO city due to the remains of the Crusader town of Acre, both above and below the present-day street level, which provide an exceptional picture of the layout and structures of the capital of the medieval Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. Also, present-day Acre being an important example of an Ottoman walled town, with a citadel, mosques, khans, and baths well preserved, partly built on top of the underlying Crusader structures
Acco was a city that was important to both Richard the Lionheart, during his Crusade, and to Napoleon several hundred years later when he made an unsuccessful attempt to capture the city. It is also on the outskirts of the city of Acre, where the most sacred place of the Bahai’s is located. Another interesting fact that is not so well known; the closest adviser to the brutal Muslim ruler Al-Jazzer, during the Ottoman period, was none other than the Jewish Haim Farhi.
Talk about a multifaceted country, where each layer of soil has its own story to tell!
Welcome to the Holy Land of Israel!
Guiding outside the walls of Acre 
Outside the mosque of Al Jazzar
