The Bahai Gardens in Haifa are a big drawcard to this coastal Israeli city. We entered from the top where there is an amazing view down the carefully manicured terraced gardens to the Shrine of the Bab and indeed right over the city and out to sea.
The shrine with the golden dome is for the ‘Bab’, the messenger or prophet who preceded the founder of the Bahai faith Bahá’u’lláh. More on Bahá’u’lláh in my post on Acre which is home to his shrine. While the Acre Bahai site is the most holy and the one Bahais turn to in prayer, the Haifa gardens above and below the shrine of the Bab, extending all the way up Mt Carmel, are far grander.
It is free to visit the site but if you want to see the gardens (and not just the shrine and the gardens at that level) then you need to go in from the top, with a guide who explains things along the way. This was really interesting actually.
Although there are many Bahai volunteers from around the world who volunteer at this ‘Bahai World Centre’ the guides are not Bahai. They employ professional guides to do the tours. Interestingly, Bahais have a self imposed restriction on teaching about their faith in the land of Israel. So they will answer questions from Israelis but in ways that are factual and don’t stimulate further interest. They don’t accept declarations of faith from Israelis and although Israel hosts the Bahai World Centre and the most holy places for Bahai, it is one of the few countries in the world where there is no formal Bahai community.
Along with the shrine and gardens there are some other buildings nearby (I think only accessible if you are Bahai). These include the Universal House of Justice and the International Teaching Centre. All the costs associated with the gardens and Bahai World Centre are financed by Bahais and Bahai communities around the world. No subsidies, grants, donations or funding are accepted from outside the Bahai community.
There are 19 terraces with gardens, water features and statues. Each level a bit different. The guide emphasised that there was no symbolism in any of the designs, statues or arrangements – it was just for beauty. However the number of terraces – 19 – is a significant number for Bahai. It means unity. If I understood correctly the Bahai calendar has 19 months of 19 days.
The founder prophet of the Bahai faith compared a colourful garden made beautiful by its variety to the many races and cultures in the world, also beautiful because of their diversity. So while there’s a big emphasis on unity in the Bahai faith, it certainly isn’t about uniformity. Minorities are valued and their culture and contributions considered important. Perhaps this is why the Bahai faith has spread so quickly to so many countries in its relatively short period of existence (176 years) without any missionary enterprise.
We were allowed to enter the shrine of the Bab but to be honest it was nothing special to look at- not like the Shrine in Acre which although simple was really quite beauitful. I have a couple of friends back in Ashburton who are Bahai and one had given me a prayer she asked me to say here, which I did, just outside the shrine. The prayer for humanity included words like… ‘O thou Kind Lord! Unite all. Let the religions agree and make the nations one, so that they may see each other as one family and the whole earth as one home. May they all live together in perfect harmony…’
Our next stop was the Stella Maris church which has a cave under the altar associated with the Old Testament prophet Elijah. Noone knows exactly where the cave mentioned in the book of Kings is located but Jews, Muslims and Christians have long venerated a cave on Mount Carmel. This one in the church is also associated with Elijah so they say.
After having our homemade quinoa salad we brought with us for lunch, we walked through a sculpture park back to near the top of the gardens where we’d started our day.
We walked along the Louis promenade enjoying views of the city and port of Haifa.
We had a day pass for public transport in Israel – trains, buses and metro. We used this to maximum effect thanks to google maps telling us what buses we could take from place to place and when they’d be arriving. At one point it directed us to an underground metro type thing that was on a slope going down quite a steep hill.
It took us to an area with some cool cafes, second hand bookstores and street art.
Next stop was Beit Hagefan- the Arab, Jewish cultural centre. There were a few art exhibitions on which we looked at before wandering through the German colony area. We had delicious icecreams here but I was still hungry and had a craving for hot chips! So it was hot chips and pickled cauliflower (came with the chips!) then back on the train to Acre to collect our bags then a train to Tel Aviv.
