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A new trail across northern Israel offers travellers the chance to walk – or trot – through New Testament sites in the footsteps of Jesus.

The newly opened Gospel Trail winds for 39 miles (62.7km), heading south from Nazareth, across gentle green hills, through Jewish and Arab towns and down to Capernaum, the fishing town where Jesus is said to have established his home base. The Tourism Ministry believes the new trail may attract up to 200,000 Christian pilgrims to northern Israel over the coming year.

Christians are a rapidly growing segment of Israeli tourism, comprising about two-thirds of the 3.45 million people who visited in 2010.

On the Gospel Trail, tourists can ride toward the Sea of Galilee on horseback, accompanied by escorts from a nearby ranch wearing jeans, big belt buckles and embroidered cowboy boots with spurs. The scene feels more Texas than Gospel, especially because according to the New Testament, Jesus’ mount of choice was a donkey. Horses were considered vehicles of war.

But as the horses canter to Capernaum, past the occasional grazing cow in a grassy pasture, with the sun setting over the distant hills of the Golan Heights, visitors can imagine for a moment that they have returned to the Holy Land of two millennia past.

The Gospel Trail, planned and researched for more than a decade, cost about $US800,000 ($A780,640). The government paid for two-thirds of it, the Jewish National Fund the rest. Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov said the trail is one element of a branding strategy to sell Israel’s abundant religious sites to visitors.

Despite the large numbers of Christian tourists, for years little comprehensive information was available to those hoping to hike alone through the Galilee. Walking trails were marked but maps were in Hebrew, Israel’s national language.

This began to change when two entrepreneurs developed a path they called the Jesus Trail in 2008, following a slightly different route from Nazareth to Capernaum. Founders David Landis and Maoz Inon offer guided hiking tours and a colourful tour book for the region, the best resource available for trekking in the steps of Jesus. Inon also founded a backpacking hostel in Nazareth.

The new Gospel Trail, by contrast, is a government project. It heads south out of Nazareth, beginning at Mount Precipice, where a mob nearly threw Jesus off a cliff after a sermon he made in a local synagogue. The summit provides sweeping views across the Galilee, from ancient Nazareth and down through the Jezreel Valley, today considered Israel’s agricultural heartland. From there, the path goes to Mount Tabor, said to be the site of the Transfiguration, when Jesus spoke to Moses and Elijah and became radiant, and God called him his son. Today, priests celebrate Mass in a Franciscan church with soaring ceilings and pristine white marble floors.

From there, the trail winds north, passing, in springtime, through a carpet of anemones and cyclamens. A side path, also marked, heads to Kfar Kana, where Jesus is said to have turned water into wine. Then the Gospel Trail passes double extinct volcanos known as the Horns of Hattin – famous as the site where Saladin’s Muslim army defeated the Crusaders in 1187. Today a lone mosque stands as one of the few remainders of an abandoned Arab village on the site.

Nearby is the town of Migdal, named for the ancient town of Magdala, said to be home to Mary Magdalene. Farther north, at Tabgha, the Church of the Multiplication of Loaves and Fishes commemorates when Jesus fed a multitude with only a handful of food. And finally, travellers pass by the Mount of Beatitudes before heading to Capernaum, where a charming pink-domed white church gives a European look to the lush green surroundings.

The Gospel Trail includes suggestions to take a boat across the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus is said to have walked on water. The boats run between Capernaum and Kibbutz Ginosar, where marine archaeologists found and preserved a 2000-year-old ancient fishing boat. Another boat route runs to Tiberias, a town dating back to 20AD.

All along the way, petrol stations, quiet farming towns and luxurious guest houses offer places to recharge. The trail wends through picturesque Biblical landscapes and long stretches of neatly planted vegetables. It also runs alongside less attractive water distillation plants and rock quarries. Ministry spokespeople say they hope the trail will provide an incentive to entrepreneurs to open hotels and restaurants along the way.

A variety of options already exist for travellers, from the Fauzi Azar Inn tucked into Nazareth’s Old City, to the luxurious Scots Hotel in Tiberias. There are also country cottages outside Jewish towns, simple beds on farms and homestays in Arab villages. Camping is also easy in the many parks along the trail.

Jose Leonardo, a chemical supervisor from Houston, walked the trail at Tel Kinrot, a hill filled with archaeological finds that looks over the Sea of Galilee. He hiked with a group of Christian pilgrims visiting Nazareth for the day as part of a week-long trip to Israel. Leonardo said he was especially moved by a visit to Mount Tabor.

“It’s great to walk where Christ actually walked and just to know that so much history is here,” Leonardo said.

“I think every Christian should come out here and actually experience that walk to get closer to God and know his land and his people.”

IF YOU GO….

HIKING ISRAEL’S GOSPEL TRAIL: www.goisrael.com

OTHER TRAILS: www.jesustrail.com, www.abrahampath.org

ACCOMMODATIONS: Fauzi Azar Inn, www.fauziazarinn.com

Israel Hostels, info(at)hostels-israel.com

Israel Youth Hostels Association, iyha.org.il

Society for Protection of Nature in Israel, www.aspni.org/

Yarok Az organic farm at Ilaniya, yarokaz.co.il,

Arbel Guest House at Moshav Arbel, arbelholidayhomes.com

LUXURY HOTEL: The Scots Hotel in Tiberias, www.scotshotels.co.il

FAMILY STAYS: Information available at www.jesustrail.com

BIKE RENTALS: Aviv Hostel in Tiberias, www.avivhotel.com and Hooha Cyclist House in Tabor, www.hooha.co.il

HORSERIDING: Vered Hagalil at Korazim, www.veredhagalil.com

CHURCH OF THE ANNUNCIATION: Open Monday-Saturday 8am to 6pm daily.

KANA’S WEDDING CHURCH: Open daily 8am-noon and 2pm-6pm.

MOUNT OF BEATITUDES: Open daily 8am-11:45am and 2:30pm-4:45pm

TABGHA: Open Monday-Saturday 10am-noon

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: Hiking the Jesus Trail by Anna Dintaman and David Landis is an excellent illustrated guidebook with many maps of the Galilee along with relevant Biblical passages.

WEATHER: Israel’s summers can be oppressively hot, especially in Tiberias. Rain in the winter months can turn the ground into thick muck. The best months to hike in Israel are March and April and September through November.

CAPERNAUM, Israel (AP) — A new trail across northern Israel offers travelers the chance to walk — or trot — through New Testament sites in the footsteps of Jesus.

The newly opened Gospel Trail winds for 39 miles, heading south from Nazareth, across gentle green hills, through Jewish and Arab towns and down to Capernaum, the fishing town where Jesus is said to have established his home base. The Tourism Ministry believes the new trail may attract up to 200,000 Christian pilgrims to northern Israel over the coming year.

Christians are a rapidly growing segment of Israeli tourism, comprising about two-thirds of the 3.45 million people who visited in 2010.

On the Gospel Trail, tourists can ride toward the Sea of Galilee on horseback, accompanied by escorts from a nearby ranch wearing jeans, big belt buckles and embroidered cowboy boots with spurs. The scene feels more Texas than Gospel, especially because according to the New Testament, Jesus’ mount of choice was a donkey. Horses were considered vehicles of war.

But as the horses canter to Capernaum, past the occasional grazing cow in a grassy pasture, with the sun setting over the distant hills of the Golan Heights, visitors can imagine for a moment that they have returned to the Holy Land of two millennia past.

The Gospel Trail, planned and researched for more than a decade, cost about $800,000. The government paid for two-thirds of it, the Jewish National Fund the rest. Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov said the trail is one element of a branding strategy to sell Israel’s abundant religious sites to visitors.

Despite the large numbers of Christian tourists, for years little comprehensive information was available to those hoping to hike alone through the Galilee. Walking trails were marked but maps were in Hebrew, Israel’s national language.

This began to change when two entrepreneurs developed a path they called the “Jesus Trail” in 2008, following a slightly different route from Nazareth to Capernaum. Founders David Landis and Maoz Inon offer guided hiking tours and a colorful tour book for the region, the best resource available for trekking in the steps of Jesus. Inon also founded a backpacking hostel in Nazareth.

The new Gospel Trail, by contrast, is a government project. It heads south out of Nazareth, beginning at Mount Precipice, where a mob nearly threw Jesus off a cliff after a sermon he made in a local synagogue. The summit provides sweeping views across the Galilee, from ancient Nazareth and down through the Jezreel Valley, today considered Israel’s agricultural heartland. From there, the path goes to Mount Tabor, said to be the site of the Transfiguration, when Jesus spoke to Moses and Elijah and became radiant, and God called him his son. Today, priests celebrate Mass in a Franciscan church with soaring ceilings and pristine white marble floors.

From there, the trail winds north, passing, in springtime, through a carpet of anemones and cyclamens. A side path, also marked, heads to Kfar Kana, where Jesus is said to have turned water into wine. Then the Gospel Trail passes double extinct volcanos known as the Horns of Hattin — famous as the site where Saladin’s Muslim army defeated the Crusaders in 1187. Today a lone mosque stands as one of the few remainders of an abandoned Arab village on the site.

Nearby is the town of Migdal, named for the ancient town of Magdala, said to be home to Mary Magdalene. Farther north, at Tabgha, the Church of the Multiplication of Loaves and Fishes commemorates when Jesus fed a multitude with only a handful of food. And finally, travelers pass by the Mount of Beatitudes before heading to Capernaum, where a charming pink-domed white church gives a European look to the lush green surroundings.

The Gospel Trail includes suggestions to take a boat across the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus is said to have walked on water. The boats run between Capernaum and Kibbutz Ginosar, where marine archaeologists found and preserved a 2,000-year-old ancient fishing boat. Another boat route runs to Tiberias, a town dating back to 20 A.D.

All along the way, gas stations, quiet farming towns and luxurious guest houses offer places to recharge. The trail wends through picturesque Biblical landscapes and long stretches of neatly planted vegetables. It also runs alongside less attractive water distillation plants and rock quarries. Ministry spokespeople say they hope the trail will provide an incentive to entrepreneurs to open hotels and restaurants along the way.

A variety of options already exist for travelers, from the Fauzi Azar Inn tucked into Nazareth’s Old City, to the luxurious Scots Hotel in Tiberias. There are also country cottages outside Jewish towns, simple beds on farms and homestays in Arab villages. Camping is also easy in the many parks along the trail.

Jose Leonardo, a chemical supervisor from Houston, walked the trail at Tel Kinrot, a hill filled with archaeological finds that looks over the Sea of Galilee. He hiked with a group of Christian pilgrims visiting Nazareth for the day as part of a week-long trip to Israel. Leonardo said he was especially moved by a visit to Mount Tabor.

“It’s great to walk where Christ actually walked and just to know that so much history is here,” Leonardo said. “I think every Christian should come out here and actually experience that walk to get closer to God and know his land and his people.”

___

Online:

ISRAEL’S GOSPEL TRAIL: http://www.goisrael.com

by Casey Phillips
view bio »

AT A GLANCE

Company: Chattanooga Whiskey Co.

Owners: Joe Ledbetter and Tim Piersant

Website: www.chattanoogawhiskey.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChattanoogaWhiskey

Email: info@chattanoogawhiskey.com

By early next year, a pair of entrepreneurs will bring back a long-lost piece of Chattanooga history, 750 milliliters at a time.

Chattanooga Whiskey Co. founders Josh Ledbetter, 32, and Tim Piersant, 30, are set to deliver the company’s first offering, 1816 Reserve, by mid-February.

“It really started on Facebook [in October] with a question, ‘Would you drink Chattanooga whiskey?'” Ledbetter said.

The response was overwhelmingly affirmative. In less than a month, the company’s profile had more than 2,000 fans. Since the company’s online unveiling Nov. 11, it has added about 600 additional fans.

“We’ve had a crazy amount of emails,” Ledbetter continued. “Everyone’s question is, ‘When can we get this thing? We’re ready to go.’ “

Although he lives in Washington, D.C., Ledbetter was born and reared in Chattanooga and attended Bryan College. A self-described “whiskey nerd,” he said he became fascinated in 2010 with the idea of reviving locally made whiskey after discovering online Chattanooga’s rich distilling history.

“I remember vividly sitting on the couch and typing in Chattanooga and whiskey and thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, this is amazing,'” he said.

Rich whiskey history

According to records in the pre-Prohibition distillery database Pre-Pro.com, Chattanooga was home to dozens of whiskey manufacturers at the turn of the 20th century. The companies were housed primarily downtown and offered rye and corn whiskeys with colorful names such as Old Tennessee Queen, Silver Leaf, Mountain City Corn Shuck and Big Chief.

By 1915, most of these distilleries were closed, although the constitutional amendment banning the sale or consumption of alcohol nationwide wasn’t ratified until 1920.

Ledbetter said he was set on bringing a high-end product to market that evoked the flavor profile of these pre-Prohibition era offerings, notably an approachable and “smooth whiskey with bourbon corn flavor.”

Prohibition’s relics

Until recently, distillation of liquor in Tennessee remained illegal in most of the Tennessee’s 95 counties, except Moore (Jack Daniel’s), Coffee (George Dickel) and Lincoln (Prichard’s). A bill passed by the General Assembly in 2009 overturned prohibition-era restrictions on distilling in 41 additional counties, but it remains illegal to distill spirits in Hamilton County.

“Our hope is to change that law, to patiently wait for the law to change in Hamilton County for it [the whiskey] to be a real Chattanooga product,” Ledbetter said.

As a result of the legal roadblock, as well as the high initial cost of distilling equipment, The Chattanooga Whiskey Co. co-founders looked to other distilleries to find a blend that had the desired characteristics for the 1816 Reserve.

Ledbetter said they found a match in Lawrenceburg Distillers Indiana in Lawrenceburg, Ind., the maker of Templeton Rye and Bulleit Rye.

“We’re not trying to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes,” Ledbetter said. “We went to LDI and said, ‘This is what we want to do. What do you guys have?’

“We hand-selected the whiskeys we wanted from theirs. We tasted it, loved it, figured out where we wanted it to be through proofing.”

The settled-on matching blend was a batch of 3-year-old whiskey with a mixture of 75 percent corn blended with rye and other grains. Ledbetter said he preferred a whiskey with a higher alcohol content than some entry-level varieties and opted to proof it at 90 proof (45 percent alcohol), rather than 80 proof.

Because bottling falls under the same legal restrictions as distilling, that process will take place at an undisclosed location in either Marion County or Sequatchie County, Ledbetter said.

Although much of the manufacturing process will take place outside Hamilton County to begin with, Ledbetter and Piersant said the goal is to begin distilling the product on their own at a location in or just outside Hamilton County as soon as possible.

Piersant, who has been friends with Ledbetter since college, said he sees the company as a sound investment and a way to promote local culture.

Historical angle

“Our city is already rich with history, so part of that rich history is distilling,” he said. “I love that story; I’m passionate about that story, and I think it’s one few people know about.”

Piersant and Ledbetter said they have devoted a great deal of time to building a marketing model around 1816 Reserve that emphasizes the product’s ties to local history.

Ledbetter and Piersant said that since local distillation isn’t possible yet, they consider it important to use local resources to help build the foundation of the brand.

Working with graphic designer Steve Hamaker, they designed a label with visual ties to turn-of-the-century advertising. Copywriter Anthony Sims has crafted a story tying 1816 Reserve to the year John Ross established a trading post on what would eventually become the downtown waterfront.

Andrew Kean is the president of Rock City and an investor in Chattanooga Renaissance Fund, a recently launched investment group focused on local entrepreneurs.

Chattanooga Whiskey Co.’s pairing of a high-quality product with a compelling story is a can’t miss, he said.

“This is a physical product you can see, smell, taste and touch,” Kean said. “That adds some diversity to the success stories we’re starting to see in Chattanooga.

“What Joe and Tim have done is … provided people a new way to experience Chattanooga’s history. That’s where it’s getting some legs. It’s attached to something bigger than us.”

LOCOcentric

Ledbetter said 1816 Reserve will be available in Chattanooga next year with concurrent launches in other major cities in Tennessee through at least two as-yet-unnamed distributors.

Once the product has developed a reputation locally, the long-term goal is to sell to the national market within three years. To that end, Ledbetter said he has already received inquiries from a distributor in Boston and plans to release 1816 in Washington, D.C., soon after its debut in Tennessee.

But first, Chattanoogans have to demonstrate a taste for a bit of history, Piersant said.

“We’re not trying to launch this anywhere other than Tennessee,” he said. “We don’t want it to sit on a shelf in Georgia. We want it to move off the shelf in Tennessee.”