Hi,
We spent the sunny but a bit cold weather and went on visiting Migdal Tsedek National Park. The place being renovated now and looks different from the last time Atzva and I visited it.
The last time was during the time Atzva and I were dating. We planned on spending the weekend at my parent house, so we took their car and drove here. As the site was not organized as it today we just parked the car nearby. And we come back we found the car window broken and Atzva bag with her wallet in it
At least now we had a better experience in the site which is a Crusader castle set on the route of the ancient Via Maris, while on the other side of this crossing there is Tel Afek (Park HaYarkon).
Take Care
Gad
Looking on the castle from below
The site had 4 trails around: The fortress way, The Stone way, Tomb hill path, cycling trail around the site. We only took the first two.
The village at the foot of the fortress
Climbing up the hill to Migdal Tsedek castle
Last ascend (only when we got to the bottom of it, we found there is a a parking lot up here)
The entrance to the Migdal Tsedek castle
Ruins of the castle, not yet renovated
Some information on the site (although some of it seems to be coming from the Site Wikipedia page)
Tombstone, tower and home – The entrance to the castle fortress
Nowadays the it is the entrance to a video about the site
The room on the second floor looking to the west over the Via Maris (Way of sea) and towards the Tel-Afek fortress on the other side of the crossing (where also Sirkin airport is)
The castle courtyard now hosts a coffee shop
The arches holding the rooms above
One Stone Left Stone upon another
Another view over the castle courtyard
An invitation to learn about the site via an interactive game in Whatsapp
Retrofitting the castle: holding the bottom of the arches (by adding an element that can stand tension on the bottom of the arches) and holding the columns by adding confining steel hoops to hold the columns.
The other entrance to the castle from the East
The hill of tombs, and the trail around it (Tomb hill path) – which we did not take
The fortress way and a view East
Digging and planting cyclamen that were pull up from a land near Elad, that will soon be covered with new industry area
The entrance to the stone way – walking around the quarries and the lime kiln
An explanation on how they were built and been used
Been explained about it by a guide
Additional kilns and the Concrete Giant remains
The castle from South-East again
A view from the top of the kilns from left (South) to right (North): nowadays quarry, the winter pool, the citadel, the Concrete Giant and Rosh HaAyin
The remains of the Concrete Giant
The kilns we were standing on top
Cooperation between Arabs and Jews working in the quarry and the kilns
The rail carts
The dream of quarry workers’ village
The pools of the concrete giant
Solel Bone Kilns
Some more kiln pictures around the site
The quarries were use as a place to damp garbage. The site was cleaned up One pile was left as reminder.