Nachscholim - Nachscholim

Nachscholim (Hebrew נחשולים "big waves" or "surf", too Nahsholim, Nachsholim or seldom Nakhsholim) is a kibbutz on the Carmel Coast in the northern Israel. In addition to a small but interesting museum with finds from neighboring Tel Dor, the place offers some very beautiful beaches, which are among the most beautiful beaches in Israel.

background

Tel Dor

Immediately to the north of today's town are the extensive ruins of the settlement mound Tel Dor. Dor was an important coastal town even before the turn of the century; The place is also mentioned several times in the Old Testament. The city was of considerable regional importance and was inhabited for long periods of time. As part of archaeological excavations, relics from various historical epochs were found, including cult objects, jewelry and ceramics. Other finds show that the manufacture of purple was an important industry in ancient Dor.

A specialty are finds from the sea, which could be recovered from Nachscholim in the context of underwater excavations. In this context, the larger quantities of coins and cannons of the Napoleonic army are outstanding. The background to the cannon finds is that Napoleon was retreating from Akko stopped at Dor in 1799; he had part of his military equipment sunk. The Tel of the ancient city of Dor has only been excavated to a small extent and has hardly been developed for tourism, but it can be walked on.

Kibbutz Nachscholim and Moshav Dor

Nachscholim is on the southern edge of Tel Dor. The kibbutz was established near the former Arab settlement in 1948 after the establishment of the state of Israel Tantura founded. Nachscholim is a tranquil coastal town. The small houses and some community facilities still identify the place as a kibbutz. However, here - as in many other kibbutzim - the waves of privatization over the past few years and decades can be clearly seen. Many earlier small kibbutz houses now have individually different extensions, the new buildings in recent years are noticeably larger than the older buildings, communal facilities have largely been abandoned: the former dining room in the town center is closed, the building largely deserted.

The moshav Dor is located south of Nachscholim. So it's farther from the Tel, even though the modern place has taken the name of the historic city. Dor arose around the same time as Nahsholim; there are no special sights here.

getting there

By plane

In the Carmel area, apart from a small airport in Haifa, no airport. Usually you will Ben Gurion Airport at Tel Aviv Use it to get here and continue from there by rental car.

By train

The coastal line of the Israeli railway runs in the immediate vicinity of the place, unfortunately there is no train station in the area. The nearest train stations - each a good 15 km away - are Binjamina in the south and Atlit in the north. Binjamina is served by all trains on the Haifa - Tel Aviv route; the station is the terminus of the Tel Aviv suburban line and at the same time a transfer stop for practically all intercity trains. From Binjamina you can either take the bus (but difficult to get there, see information in the next section) or take a licensed taxi. In Atlit there are no sensible options for onward travel, so the train station is out of the question for the journey.

If you want to take a rental car or if you are coming from the north, you can take the train to Haifa and look for the car rental company there or change to the bus.

By bus

Nachscholim himself is busied rarely approached, which makes getting there by public transport much more difficult. The next bus stop with regular service (which is called Dor Branching or Nakhsholim / Dor Branching at Egged) is at the junction of the local road 7011 from the old coastal road; from there it is another 3 km to the actual place. If you cannot be picked up, the only thing left to do is to walk; that in turn is not a lot of fun because the first 2.5 km of the road are dead straight, so you have the feeling that you are barely making any headway.

Theoretically, you could hitchhike the short distance if you want to take the risk (you can find information on hitchhiking in Israel in the Main article "Israel"). In this case, you stand at the bus shelter at the beginning of the local street, signal that you want to be picked up and wait for someone to stop.

The bus stop at the junction itself is very easy to reach by bus; there are frequent links after Haifa (Central Bus Station Chof haCarmel) and Hadera as well as occasional connections over Zichron Ya'akov to the train station in Binjamina.

Of	Bus routes	Connection density during the day	Duration approx.	Price NIS	Hints
Binjamina	202, 222	every 60-90 min	20 min	11,30	222 seldom runs
Hadera	921	every 30 min	30 min	13,50
Haifa (CBS Chof haKarmel)	202, 222, 921	every 20-30 min	20 min	13,50	to Haifa according to the plan, longer travel time; 222 seldom runs
Zichron Ya'akov	202, 222	every 60-90 min	10 min	11,30	222 seldom runs
Notes: Individual lines may be missing in the table (e.g. if they rarely run). The bar density refers to all available connections. The links in the table are used for travel planning, so they lead to the Arrival information of the linked location. Swell: Egged and Otobusim.co.il; Status: 02/2011 - * Lines with a star are not served by Egged, but by another company.

In the meantime, a bus line operated by the Kavim company has also been set up from Binjamina, which leaves the coastal road and goes directly to Nachscholim. However, this connection is only used sporadically, so make sure to check the current timetables in advance!

Of	Bus routes	Connection density during the day	Duration approx.	Price NIS	Hints
Binjamina	694*	irregular	20 min		currently 8 buses / day, only two connections in the morning
Notes: Individual lines may be missing in the table (e.g. if they rarely run). The bar density refers to all available connections. The links in the table are used for travel planning, so they lead to the Arrival information of the linked location. Swell: Egged and Otobusim.co.il; Status: 04/2017 - * Lines with a star are not served by Egged, but by another company.

In the street

Nachscholim is on the Mediterranean coast, about three quarters of the way from Tel Aviv to Haifa. The next bigger city is Zichron Ya'akov.

To get there, you usually take Autobahn 2 (Tel Aviv - Haifa) and exit at the “Zikhron Ya'akov Interchange”. You then inevitably come to road 70, which you follow for 2 km to “Fureidis Junction”. Turn left and follow the old coastal road 4 for a further 2 km to the north in the direction of Haifa. On the left hand side, the spur road 7011 goes to Nachscholim and Dor, the places are signposted from the old coastal road.

After leaving the motorway and the railroad tracks behind you, the access roads to Dor and Nachscholim leave the road on the left and right. As a tourist, however, you normally follow road 7011 to its end; there is access to the beaches and the driveway to the kibbutz hotel.

By boat

The place has no port; it is therefore not approached by ships.

mobility

In Nachsholim and the immediate vicinity one moves on foot; the goals can be reached within a few minutes.

Tourist Attractions

museum

The main attraction in Nachsholim is the museum. The striking high stone building with its three-gabled red gable roof is hard to miss (the roof is only a few years old and is missing in older pictures of the house; previously only the ground floor was in use).

Originally the building was a glass factory in which Edmond de Rothschild used glass bottles for his wineries in the area at the end of the 19th century Zichron Ya'akov (Zikhron Ya'akov). The sand from the nearby beaches was used for this. It soon turned out, however, that the sand was of poor quality: the bottles produced here turned black and were therefore unusable. The use of imported sand could solve the problem, but the significantly higher production costs and rampant malaria caused production to cease in 1896, just five years after the factory opened. The building fell into disrepair and was only restored after the kibbutz was established. It now houses a small but interesting museum with finds from the Tel, which are spread over several rooms. You can see, among other things, utensils that were used to extract purple, anchors from different historical epochs, jewelry, ceramics, mosaics and the Napoleonic cannons mentioned above. One room shows with simple means how the underwater archaeologists from CONRAD (Center of nautical and regional archeology Dor) work underwater during excavations. A film about Nachscholim, the Tel and the museum will also be shown (also in German and English). The film points out that archaeologists from Nachscholim were involved in the recovery of the so-called "Jesus boat" from Ginnosar were involved. The name of the museum - “Mizgaga” (מזגגה, the “z” is pronounced as a voiced s) - simply means “glass factory” or “glassworks” after the building's earlier function.

A short one Movie on Youtube shows the museum and its surroundings from a bird's eye view; between the seconds 40 and 45 you can see the bay of Nachscholim in the background and to the right of it the Tel.

Tel Dor

Worth seeing is next to the museum the Tel Dor, which is on the northern edge of the Bay of Nachscholim, i.e. north of the place. The Tel and the stretch of coast behind it belong to the Israeli natural park "Chof Dor - Habonim" of the Israeli park administration; unfortunately there is only Information in Hebrew.

The ruins of Tel Dor are accessible free of charge, but the site is not open to tourists. For those interested in the subject, there is probably a lot to discover, the layman, on the other hand, has problems without assistance in recognizing something meaningful in the jumble of the ruins that have only been excavated in parts. Various port facilities, the remains of temples, the remains of the city fortifications and the sewage systems were excavated and archaeologically researched. Directly behind the last houses of Nachscholim, the foundation walls of a large Byzantine church (now partially re-grown) were found on the southeast corner of the Tel, in which part of the rock of Golgotha ​​was originally venerated. A detailed, commented picture gallery from the Tel can be found at Biblewalks (English). Further information is available on the official excavation site (partly available in German).

The rugged coastline on the Tel and north of it, i.e. in the area of ​​the nature park, is generally worth seeing. Here you can go on long hikes.

activities

• Nachscholim has very beautiful sandy beaches, which some consider to be the most beautiful in the country. There is a bay directly on site (northwest of the kibbutz hotel), further south, after a peninsula, there are beaches with offshore islands. Access is chargeable in summer.
• In summer, guests can enjoy activities on the beach and boat trips, among other things.
• A special activity is helping with the excavations on Tel, for which volunteers are being sought (see Work).
• You can enjoy beautiful sunsets along the coast and on the Tel.

shop

There is a small supermarket in Nachscholim (next to the former main building in the town center). There are more shops in Zichron Ya'akov; The quickest way to reach Nachscholim is the “Mul Zichron” shopping center below the city (on the old coastal road 4).

kitchen

• The hotel has a restaurant; the Rosemary restaurant is located in the hotel area.
• The “Blue Bossa”, a beach café or beach bar, is located between the reception and the beach. The Blue Bossa is only open in the summer months.

nightlife

In summer there are various offers for guests (e.g. beach parties); In general, however, it is rather quiet, so you have to see what is on offer.

accommodation

There are no cheap places to stay in Nachscholim; the existing accommodations are in the middle to upper price segment. There are other places to stay, for example, in Zichron Ya'akov.

• Nahsholim Sea Side Resort or Nachscholim Beach Hotel, D.N. Hof HaCarmel 30815 Israel. Tel.: 972-4-6399533, Fax: 972-4-639761 4. The hotel is operated by the kibbutz, it is located directly on the bay, borders the beaches and the old glass factory. The rooms are located in a holiday village-like garden; Reception, conference rooms and restaurant are in separate buildings :.last change: not specified
• Dor Kibbutz Holiday Village, Moshav Dor, 30820 Israel. The "Dor Kibbutz Holiday Village" is a little further south on the beach and is a little cheaper.last change: not specified

Work

The kibbutz is taking no Volunteers are more open, so it is no longer possible to work as a “volunteer”. If you want, you can take part in the excavations on Tel, which take place every summer and last several weeks. Volunteers can also help with the sweaty work in Israeli midsummer; Further information on the requirements and the general conditions can be found on the official excavation site.

health

There is an Israeli practice in Nachsholim Clalit Health Services. There is a general practitioner who holds regular consultations there. There are specialists and clinics in Zichron Ja'akow and in Haifa.

Practical advice

Public telephones are located at the hotel reception.

trips

• The striking ridge of the rises behind the coastal strip Carmel Mountains. Many of the region's attractions can be reached within a maximum of half an hour, e.g.
  • the wine-growing town Zichron Ya'akovwhich is enthroned a few kilometers as the crow flies on the ridge (almost 10 km on the road),
  • Haifa with the famous Baha'i Gardens (30 km),
  • the Druze villages Isfiya and Daljat al Karmel in the central Carmel Mountains (approx. 30 km) and
  • the artist village En Hod at Atlit (15 km).
• The ancient coastal city Caesarea with its impressive excavations is just under 20 kilometers by car to the south.

literature

• Ephraim Stern: Dor, ruler of the seas, nineteen years of excavations at the Israelite-Phoenician harbor town on the Carmel coast. Israel Exploration Society, Jerusalem 2000 (2nd edition).
• Ephraim Stern (Ed.), Excavations at Dor. Figurines, Cult Objects and Amulets. 1980-2000 seasons. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 2010.

There is a great deal of information about Dor and the excavations there further literature.

Web links

• http://www.nahsholim.org.il/ - Official website of Nachsholim