Mountain peakIsrael · IL
Mount Tabor
Mount Tabor (Har Tavor) is one of the most recognisable hills in the Middle East: a perfectly green dome that erupts from the flat floor of the Jezreel Valley in Israel's Lower Galilee, crowned by two churches. Christians have trekked to its summit since the 4th century, believing this is the unnamed "high mountain" where Jesus was transfigured before Peter, James and John. What you climb for is both a holy sanctuary and a sweeping 360° panorama across the Galilee, the Golan and, on clear days, the snows of Mount Hermon. The dome stands only about 560–580 metres above sea level, but it rises roughly 400–450 metres above the plain around it, which is why this modest hill dominates an enormous view and why armies fought over it from Deborah and Barak to Napoleon and the 1948 war. Today it is a free-entry nature reserve and national park whose summit loop trail is gentle enough for families, while the Franciscan Church of the Transfiguration and its ancient crypt are open to visitors.
