The Jerusalem Botanical Gardens, located near the Hebrew University - the perfect place for those tourists who have time to acclimatize. Here you can spend a relaxing day, inhaling the exotic aromas and admiring the vegetation from all over the world. However, the terrain here is hilly, and in the heat is hard to constantly go up and down. In this case, visitors relax in a cafe on the banks of an artificial lake with black swans or ride on the territory of a small train (he embarks on a journey every hour every day, except Saturday).

The garden in the hills was planted in 1954 - as an alternative to the first botanical garden on Mount Scopus, lost during the Arab-Israeli war of 1948. As a result of the war with the Mount Scopus campus and garden, which houses the Biblical Zoo, it was cut off from the young state of Israel. However, the campus of the Hebrew University and the Botanical Gardens were reborn in another new area of ​​Jerusalem.

On an area of ​​12 hectares of the plant are 10 thousand species - the largest collection in the country. They are planted in sections representing the flora of different regions - Mediterranean, Central and Southwest Asia, Australia, North America, Europe and South Africa. The composition of the collection in some way symbolizes the geographical location of Israel at the crossroads of the three parts of the world. Furthermore, Jerusalem itself is located on the border of the climate: on the one side of the hill there may be snow, but on the other - in summer warmed the earth. So in the garden thrive and Australian eucalyptus trees, and plants of North American wetlands and Turkish oaks. Many seasonal flowers (such as snapdragons and tulips) bloom at the same time, it is rarely in Europe. This is a wonderful space attracts many birds - there are at least 46 species of birds, including cormorants and Syrian woodpeckers.

In the Botanical Garden are proud of one of the oldest and most diverse collections of bonsai in Israel there are about 300. For those who want to learn the art of growing bonsai in the garden opened a school-workshop.

Tropical greenhouse reproduces a tropical rain forest on both sides of the equator: it is hot and humid. Therefore, well-palm trees, bananas, vanilla, coffee trees, epiphytic orchids, and carnivorous Nepenthes favorite winged visitors, feeding on insects.

But perhaps the most tourists are interested in the unique local landmark - the Bible trail. Along the winding road pyatisotmetrovoy planted more than 70 species of plants mentioned in the Bible. Among them, wheat, cedar of Lebanon, grapes, almonds, cane, hyssop, papyrus, date palm, olive, carob, mandrake. To understand exactly where the plant is mentioned and why it was important to the ancient Jews, help audioguide (it can take at the box office) and the plate with the appropriate text from the Bible.