Charlie. D Licensed Tour Guide

20/02/2023

Praying at the pools of Bethesda in old Jerusalem

04/04/2022

Archaeologists working on the site of an early Christian church near the Sea of Galilee have unearthed a mosaic depicting five loaves of bread and two fish.

21/12/2021

At Friends Tours and Travel we are so excited to celebrate Christmas! 🎄 What are your favorite Christmas traditions?

29/11/2021

The events that inspired the Hanukkah holiday took place during a particularly turbulent phase of Jewish history. Around 200 B.C.
Judea—also known as the Land of Israel—came under the control of Antiochus III, the Seleucid king of Syria, who allowed the Jews who lived there to continue practicing their religion.
His son, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, proved less benevolent: Ancient sources recount that he outlawed the Jewish religion and ordered the Jews to worship Greek gods.
In 168 B.C. his soldiers descended upon Jerusalem, massacring thousands of people and desecrating the city’s holy Second Temple by erecting an altar to Zeus and sacrificing pigs within its sacred walls.
Led by the Jewish priest Mattathias and his five sons, a large-scale rebellion broke out against Antiochus and the Seleucid monarchy. When Matthathias died in 166 B.C., his son Judah, known as Judah Maccabee, took the helm; within two years the Jews had successfully driven the Syrians out of Jerusalem, relying largely on guerilla warfare tactics.
Judah called on his followers to cleanse the Second Temple, rebuild its altar and light its menorah—the gold candelabrum whose seven branches represented knowledge and creation and were meant to be kept burning every night.
According to the Talmud, one of Judaism’s most central texts, Judah Maccabee and the other Jews who took part in the rededication of the Second Temple witnessed what they believed to be a miracle. Even though there was only enough untainted olive oil to keep the menorah’s candles burning for a single day, the flames continued flickering for eight nights, leaving them time to find a fresh supply.

01/11/2021

28/10/2021

26/09/2021

At Friends Tours and Travel, we customize reliable and trustworthy Religious Tours, Educational Tours, Vacation Travel, and Cruises to destinations all over the world.

16/09/2021

Nabi Samuel National Park

🔰Located 8km west of Jerusalem.
🔰The name of the hill here is Mount of Joy because this is the place where the Crusaders saw the city for the first time in the 11th century.

✅Prophet Samuel was born and died at Ramah and according to Tradition this is Ramah from the Old Testament.

✅One of the few places in the country where we have a Synagogue, Church and a Mosque built one on top of the other.

✅Today both the Synagogue and the Mosque are active and you can see a good friendship between the Cousins here.

You can see remains from:
❗Persian period
❗Hellenistic period
❗Byzantine period
❗Muslim period
❗Crusaders period
❗Mammluk period
❗Ottoman empire

10/09/2021

Rosh Pina 

🔰is a small city neighbouring Safed that, along with the ancient city of Hazor, comprise a tri-city feature.
🔰Filled with rich history, beautiful buildings, and lovely scenery and today, light industry and tourism. 🔰The youngest of the three cities, Rosh Pina was founded in the later half of the 19th century by Baron Rothschild, governing the local British rule.
🔰He built a synagogue first and then orchestrated the building of the houses and schools that is now the old, quaint neighbourhood of Rosh Pina.

09/09/2021

Caesarea Martima

🔰A city built by King Herod the Great between 25-13BC to show his loyalty to the new emperor
Octavian (which was later given the title Agustus)
🔰A city with theaters, hippodromes and the 2nd biggest port in the Roman Empire
🔰Aftre his death it became under the control of his son Herod Archealous

2 important events in the bible took place here:
❗Acts 10 - the baptism of Cornelius (the first gentile)
❗Acts 23-25 Paul was imprisoned here before he appealed to Caesar

30/08/2021

On the Mount of the Beatitudes where we commemorate the Sermon on the Mount
(Matthew 5-7).

29/08/2021

The Church of Multiplication aka Tabgha

❗Located on the northern shore of the Sea if Galilee
❗The church is located in the valley of the Seven Springs (70% of the waters of the sea of Galilee is from the Jordan river while 30% is from springs and rain water)
❗the water was worm and attracted fish so you can say this was one of the favorite places for fishermen (most of the disciples were fishermen, 3 miracles were related to fish)
❗So what happened here?
The feeding of the 5000 with 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread
❗This miracle is mentioned in the 4 gospel

28/08/2021

Magdala or Migdal
🔰A town from the 2nd Temple Period (time of Jesus) that protected the Via Maris (the international highway that connected Egypt and Mesopotamia) the word Migdal in Hebrew means a tower. Streets, port, synagogue markets from the time of Jesus were found during the excavations of the site
🔰A very important figure came from Migdal, Mary Magdalene or Mary of Magdala. She is mentioned 12 times in the scripture, more than any of the deciples and the first to witness the resurrection of our lord
🔰The city witnessed the only naval battle during the great revold (66-73AD)
Scripture:
🔰The Gospel of Luke 8:2–3 lists Mary as one of the women who traveled with Jesus and helped support his ministry "out of their resources", indicating that she was probably relatively wealthy. The same passage also states that seven demons had been driven out of her, a statement which is repeated in the longer ending of Mark.

27/08/2021

🔰Capernaum - the town of Jesus🔰

✔ Capernaum means the house of Comfort
✔Peter, Andrew, John, James and Matthew came from this town
✔Located on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee on the Via Maris (international highway)
✔Their main income was from: Taxes, fishing, trade and agriculture.

09/08/2021

HI HI
I booked a tour for 3 days to visit a secret site that was built during the Soviet Union and was monitoring the Airspace of different parts in Europe and down to Turkey.
when i got to the top of the mountain i was impressed by the 5 white domes that were protecting the radars that used to send messages to Lviv, Kyiv and from the capital of Ukraine today the info was sent to Moscow

It was built in the 1960's and functioned till the 1990's and then it was dismantled.

Till our day today we don't have a lot of information about this place.

HI HII booked a tour for 3 days to visit a secret site that was built during the Soviet Union and was monitoring the Airspace of different parts in Europe an...

25/07/2021

HI HI

Caesarea by the Sea was one of the most important cities in antiquity and is one of the most visited archeological sites we have in the country..... in taday's video i will take you to the aqueducts that were built by K. Herod the Great and were used later in different periods to bring water to the city.
Was it used during the Byzantine period? Check this out in the video

HI HICaesarea by the Sea was one of the most important cities in antiquity and is one of the most visited archeological sites we have in the country..... in ...

08/07/2021

Hi Hi

One of the highlights of any trip to any country in the middle east is FOOD. in this video we will take you to the old city of Jerusalem and show you what and where locals eat.
some of the food that we tried on this tour is Hummus with Falafel and the Jerusalem Begal
we had Kunafe for dessert and ended the day with the tastiest Kebab in Town.

https://youtu.be/3eAqZ5ctEXE

Hi Hi One of the highlights of any trip to any country in the middle east is FOOD. in this video we will take you to the old city of Jerusalem and show you w...

29/06/2021

HI Hi

Today's video is about one of the most important valleys in the country The Sorek Valley so what is the story behind this valley and why it was important.

The Valley of Soreq, is one of the largest, most important drainage basins in the Judean Hills. It is mentioned in the Book of Judges 16 of the Bible as the border between the ancient Philistines and the Tribe of Dan of the ancient Israelites.

In Judges 16:4 we read: 4 Some time later, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. 5 The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, “See if you can lure him into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels[a] of silver.”

The meaning of the word Sorek -
The Sorek is a "fruitless tree", implying a moral lesson and metaphor suggesting that Samson's involvement in his affair with Delilah was eventually "fruitless".
However, another etymology suggests that "sorek" means "special vine" and refers to the grapes and wines grown in the area.

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https://youtu.be/za7yyvq59oM

HI HiToday's video is about one of the most important valleys in the country The Sorek Valley so what is the story behind this valley and why it was importan...

24/06/2021

HI HI
Today i wanted to take you to a site a big % of the tourists don't go to and its the Shrine of Nabi Musa where Muslims believe the Prophet is Buried.
Is this really the site or no? Enjoy the video to explore this amazing place.

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https://youtu.be/b7LETdIXezo

HI HIToday i wanted to take you to a site a big % of the tourists don't go to and its the Shrine of Nabi Musa where Muslims believe the Prophet is Buried.Is ...

20/06/2021

First of all i would like to thank Sasha for recommending this tour and recommending it via .ukraine. this is my second tour with Sasha and she was amazing everything went smooth and everyone was safe and we all went back home with our shoes!!! .ukraine thank you for this trip, Zhenya was very good, the bus driver was excellent and the bus itself was great. I highly recommend doing this tour with Sasha & .ukraine

#чернобыль #припять #украина #тур #киев #туризм #гид #україна #київ #1986 #26апреля

30/05/2021

Not far away from Bethlehem, you can even say where the Judean desert starts in the area of Bethlehem an important Monk established a Monastery in the 5th century that still survives and is still active till our day today.
Join me on this video to learn more about this amazing Monastery.

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Not far away from Bethlehem, you can even say where the Judean desert starts in the area of Bethlehem an important Monk established a Monastery in the 5th ce...

17/05/2021

In the last part of the Gems of the Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem, we visited the Herodian Quarter and talked about the site and what was there during the second Temple Period and what we have today in this important site that was found during the excavations in the 1970's it's also one of the places where you can see remains from the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70AD during the Jewish Roman Great Revolt.

In the last part of the Gems of the Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem, we visited the Herodian Quarter and talked about the site and what was there...

17/05/2021

In the previous video about the gems of the Jewish Quarter we talked about the Roman Cardo and the Broad wall, in this part together with Adam we talked about The Menorah and the Mezuzah and then we walked down towards the Burnt House (a small Museum in the Jewish Quarter) that witnessed the destruction of the city of Jerusalem by the Romans in the Great Revolt (70AD) and used to belong to a priestly family in the 2nd Temple Period.

In the previous video about the gems of the Jewish Quarter we talked about the Roman Cardo and the Broad wall, in this part together with Adam we talked abou...

17/05/2021

In Today's video together with Adam we went to the Jewish Quarter, one of the 4 Quarters of the old city of Jerusalem and decided to visit the highlights of this amazing quarter.

We started by the Roman/Byzantine Cardo - The heart of any Roman city, a street that connected the northern side with the southern side. It was paved during the Roman period and expanded during the Byzantine Period.

Then we continued toward the Broad Wall that was build by King Hezekiah when he wanted to protect the city from Sennacherib (The Assyrian Conquest) we can read the story in the Book of Isaiah 22:9-10.
The wall was discovered during the excavations that took place in the Jewish Quarter after the 6 Day War (1967)

In Today's video together with Adam we went to the Jewish Quarter, one of the 4 Quarters of the old city of Jerusalem and decided to visit the highlights of ...

17/05/2021

In today's video i went to the area of Silwan (Siloam) and had a short walk in the Hinnom Valley where we have tombs from the time of Jesus, the Tomb of Annas the High Priest and the first crusader cemetery in the Jerusalem.
When i got to the area of the tomb of Annas i was surprised that it is a private property and not accessible to public but after talking with the landlord i was granted a permission to enter and get as close as i can to 2 very wealthy tombs from the time of Jesus.

In today's video i went to the area of Silwan (Siloam) and had a short walk in the Hinnom Valley where we have tombs from the time of Jesus, the Tomb of Anna...

17/05/2021

In the last video of Caesarea by the sea i visited the crusader city and the famous port that was built by King Herod the great and from where Paul was sent to Rome.
Remains from the Ottoman Period can be noticed (a mosque) and a building that was used by the british to keep an eye on the Mediterranean Sea during the illegal immigration of Jews from Europe.

In the last video of Caesarea by the sea i visited the crusader city and the famous port that was built by King Herod the great and from where Paul was sent...

25/04/2021

In Part 2 i visited the area of the palaces and the Hippodrome
Caesarea has 2 palaces an upper one and a lower one in the area of the upper palace we have the Listening hall we read about in the Book of Acts lets not forget that 2 important events took place in Caesarea by the Sea (baptism of Cornelius and Paul being in prison there before he was sent to Rome).
On my way to the Hippodrome i stopped by the Latrins - ancient WC (if you didnt watch Ben Hur then watch it and you will understand the concept of a Hippodrome).

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In Part 2 i visited the area of the palaces and the HippodromeCaesarea has 2 palaces an upper one and a lower one in the area of the upper palace we have the...

22/04/2021

Carsarea Martime or Caesarea by the Sea part 1
a port city built by King Herod the Great to show his loyalty to the new emperor.
A city with theaters, bath houses, palaces and the 2nd biggest port in the Roman Empire.
in part 1 I'm talking a briefly about the history of the site and the theater.
Join me and visit this beautiful place.

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Carsarea Martime or Caesarea by the Sea part 1a port city built by King Herod the Great to show his loyalty to the new emperor.a city with theaters, bath hou...