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City walk Haifa — Mount Carmel, Israel

Haifa: The Baháʼí Terraces, the German Colony and Wadi Nisnas

One downhill day across Mount Carmel — nineteen garden terraces, a golden shrine, a Templer boulevard, an Arab market quarter, and a cable car back to the sea.

Haifa: The Baháʼí Terraces, the German Colony and Wadi Nisnas
Photo: Arash Hashemi · CC BY-SA 3.0
Duration
1 day
Distance
5 km
Walking time (est.)
1 h 30 min
Difficulty
Easy
Best season
March–May and October–November

Walking

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    Getting there and back

    Start
    Louis Promenade (Yefe Nof Street)
    Finish
    Bat Galim beach

    One-way: plan your trip back

    Directions to the start Back from the finish

    Haifa is a city best read from top to bottom. It falls in tiers down the northern nose of Mount Carmel to the bay, and the Baháʼí Terraces — nineteen of them, cut in a single green stripe from the ridge to the harbour — make that geography impossible to miss. This route follows the mountain’s own logic: start at the top, let gravity do the work, and finish at the water.

    Along the way the city changes character every few hundred metres. The manicured symmetry of the terraces gives way to the Templer stonework of the German Colony, then to the alleys of Wadi Nisnas, where the smell of za’atar and coffee replaces the smell of cut grass. Haifa’s reputation as Israel’s most quietly mixed city is not a slogan you read on a sign; it is something you walk through.

    Getting there. The top entrance sits on Yefe Nof Street (Louis Promenade), reachable by bus from Merkaz HaCarmel or by the Carmelit funicular from the lower city. Coming from Tel Aviv, the train to Haifa Hof HaCarmel or Merkaz HaShmona takes about an hour.

    Permits & tickets. Entry to the Baháʼí Gardens is free. The full walk down the terraces is only possible on a free guided tour that leaves at set times from the top entrance — typically late morning in Hebrew and around midday in English, first come, first served, and the gardens are usually closed to tours one day a week. Arrive about half an hour early and check the current schedule before you go. Without the tour you can still visit the top observation terrace and the shrine area on your own.

    Good to know:

    Elevation profile

    Highest point
    157 m Day 1
    Lowest point
    5 m Day 1
    Total descent
    255 m

    Point at the profile, or focus it and use the arrow keys, to see that spot on the map.

    Terrain heights along a straight line between each day’s stops, not along the footpath, so a pass or a switchback the path takes can be missing. Descent and walking times use the same line.

    Elevation data: Terrain Tiles (Mapzen, AWS Open Data)

    Day by day

    DayDistanceAscentDescent (est.)Walking time (est.)
    Day 1 Hardest dayFrom the ridge to the sea
    Distance5 kmAscentNot recordedDescent (est.)255 mWalking time (est.)1 h 30 min

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    Day 1

    From the ridge to the sea

    Louis Promenade (Yefe Nof Street) → Bat Galim beach 5 km 1 h 30 min
    Navigate this day

    A single top-to-bottom line across Haifa: gardens, shrine, boulevard, market quarter, monastery, cable car.

    Drinking water

    Water
    Drinking water 250 m from stop 1
    Drinking water 60 m from stop 6

    Places mapped by volunteers on OpenStreetMap; opening times and taps change, so check before relying on one. © OpenStreetMap contributors

    Segments

    1. The top terrace & Louis Promenade 0.6 km Map

      Merkaz HaCarmel → Baháʼí Gardens upper entrance

      Paved promenade

      Start on the Louis Promenade, where the whole route lays itself out below you — the terraces dropping away in a straight green line, the port, the bay curving north to Akko. The gardens were completed in 2001 and climb the mountain in nineteen terraces. This is the viewpoint every photograph of Haifa is taken from, and it is free. Allow about 30 minutes, or longer if you are waiting for the tour.

    2. Down the terraces to the Shrine of the Báb
      Down the terraces to the Shrine of the Báb 1 km Map

      Baháʼí Gardens upper entrance → Shrine of the Báb

      Garden stairs and gravel paths

      The heart of the day, and the part that needs the free guided tour. You descend through terrace after terrace of clipped hedges, red gravel, fountains and cypresses to the central terrace, where the golden-domed Shrine of the Báb holds the remains of the founder of the Bábí Faith. The dome looks north across the bay. It is startlingly quiet for a place in the middle of a working port city. About 60 minutes on the tour.

      About this place

      The Shrine of the Báb is a structure on the slopes of Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel, where the remains of the Báb, founder of the Bábí Faith and forerunner of Baháʼu'lláh in the Baháʼí Faith, are buried; it is considered to be the second holiest place on Earth for Baháʼís, after the Shrine of Baháʼu'lláh in Acre. Its precise location on Mount Carmel was designated by Baháʼu'lláh himself to his eldest son, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, in 1891. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá planned the structure, which was designed and completed several years later by his grandson, Shoghi Effendi.

      Read more on Wikipedia Photo: This picture has been taken, uploaded and the copyright owned by Tom Habibi, but released in the licences below. Shrine of the Báb from North West Image Details: Canon EOS 300D w/18-55mm kit lens, 1/100 sec, F/7.1, 2005/04/01, 40mm (approx equiv to 58mm) Photoshopped: Filter level, colours and levels only ID (if you require the original which I would strongly recommend if you are using this photo): 1734 As with all my work if you require other licenses please let me know and I'll see what I can do. Please quote the id. · CC BY-SA 3.0
    3. The German Colony
      The German Colony 0.8 km Map

      Baháʼí Gardens lower gate → Ben Gurion Boulevard

      City streets

      Step out of the lower gate and straight onto Ben Gurion Boulevard, which is aligned with the shrine on purpose — turn around and the gardens rise directly up the axis of the street. The colony was founded in 1868 by German Templers, and their low stone houses with pitched red roofs and carved German inscriptions above the doors are still the buildings you are walking between, now filled with restaurants and cafés. A good place to eat. About 45 minutes.

      About this place

      The German Colony is an area of Haifa established in 1868 as a Christian German Templer Colony in Ottoman Palestine. It was the first of several colonies established by the group in the Holy Land. Others were founded in Sarona near Jaffa, Galilee and Jerusalem. Some of the original buildings are still surviving today, and the area continues to be visited, lived in, and in use.

      Read more on Wikipedia Photo: StateofIsrael · CC BY-SA 2.0
    4. Wadi Nisnas
      Wadi Nisnas 0.9 km Map

      Ben Gurion Boulevard → Wadi Nisnas market

      Narrow streets and stairs

      Cross into the Arab quarter of Haifa, a neighbourhood of about 8,000 people and the least touristed stop on this walk. The market streets are tight, loud and genuinely local — produce, spices, hummus counters that have been arguing over who is best for decades. Sculptures and murals are set into the walls and alleys as part of an open-air 'Museum without Walls'. In December the quarter hosts the Holiday of Holidays festival, marking Hanukkah, Christmas and Ramadan together. About 45 minutes.

      About this place

      Wadi Nisnas is a predominantly Arab neighborhood in the city of Haifa, with a population of about 8,000 inhabitants.

      Read more on Wikipedia Photo: Deror avi · CC BY-SA 3.0
    5. Up to Stella Maris
      Up to Stella Maris 1.4 km Map

      Wadi Nisnas → Stella Maris Monastery

      City streets and stairs (uphill)

      The one real climb of the day, onto the western shoulder of the Carmel. The Stella Maris Monastery belongs to the Discalced Carmelite friars, the order that took its name from this mountain, and its painted dome and quiet church face the sea rather than the city. Elijah's Cave, associated with the prophet and venerated by Jews, Christians, Muslims and Druze alike, is on the slope below. About 45 minutes including the climb.

      About this place

      The Stella Maris Monastery is a Catholic Christian monastery for Discalced Carmelite friars, located on the slopes of Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel.

      Read more on Wikipedia Photo: זאב שטיין · CC BY 2.5
    6. The cable car down to Bat Galim
      The cable car down to Bat Galim 0.4 km Map

      Stella Maris Monastery → Bat Galim beach

      Aerial cable car

      Finish the way the mountain wants you to: in a spherical cabin dangling off the cliff. The Bat Galim cable car has run since 1986, drops about 355 metres of route from opposite the monastery down to the shore, and gives you the bay, the port and the whole descent you just walked in one long window. Step out at the bottom onto the beach. About 15 minutes.

      About this place

      The Bat Galim cable car is tourist cable car running up and down the mountain from the top of the Carmel, across from the Stella Maris Carmelite Monastery, to Bat Galim, with views of Haifa Bay and its surroundings. The cable car began operating in 1986. The route is 355 meters long.

      Read more on Wikipedia Photo: Gilabrand at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0

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