Haifa: the hanging gardens of the Bahá'í faith

Built on the slopes of Mount Carmel, Haifa houses terraced gardens, a UNESCO World Heritage site that holds the central sanctuary of the Bahá'í Faith.

The Carmelit funicular remains the most comfortable way to climb toward the mountain.

The Bahá'í Gardens, nineteen terraces sculpted along the slope of Mount Carmel, protect the Shrine of the Báb, a sacred place for millions of devotees throughout the world.

A few minutes away, the Wadi Nisnas neighborhood, historically Arab, enlivens markets and colorful murals in one of Israel's most multicultural quarters.

Continuing toward the port, visitors discover the National Maritime Museum, which recounts the naval history of the Eastern Mediterranean from antiquity to today.

Toward evening, Haifa's German quarter, founded by Templar settlers in the nineteenth century, animates restaurants along a tree-lined avenue that leads to the gardens.

The nineteen terraces of the Bahá'í Gardens symbolically represent the nineteen letters of the Living, the first disciples of the prophet Báb, founder of the religious faith born in Persia in the nineteenth century.

Haifa remains one of the few Israeli cities where Jewish, Arab Christian, and Muslim communities coexist in adjacent neighborhoods, a model of coexistence often cited as rare in the region.