BAHA'I GARDENS

The Baha'i gardens that climb Mount Carmel are a sacred site for the Baha'i faith, which has established its administrative and spiritual center here. The site has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2008. At the end of the ^19th century, Bahá'u'lláh, founder of the Bahá'í religion, was expelled from Persia. His forced exile took him to Baghdad, Constantinople and finally Acre, then a penal colony of the Ottoman Empire. When he visited Haifa in 1890, he pointed out Mount Carmel to his son Abbas Effendi and asked him to establish there the final resting place of the Bab, the first prophet of the Baha'i religion, who had been shot and buried in Persia. In 1909, the Bab's remains were transported to the designated site, where a first shrine was built. The Bab shrine we admire today was completed in 1953: it is Haifa's most spectacular monument, with its golden dome visible from afar. Over a period of half a century, the Baha'is transformed the stony mountain of Carmel into a formal garden that winds down the slope in a succession of nineteen impeccably maintained terraces. Over a kilometer of slope, English lawn competes in green with paths of red gravel and white pebbles; fountains punctuate a stroll among exotic trees, century-old olive trees and countless rose bushes. From the heights, the view is spectacular, and you can discover it on your own or join a guided tour (in English) to learn more about the precepts of this fascinating monotheistic religion.