It is hard to believe that we are celebrating our one-year anniversary!

This anniversary issue features a collection of articles from our first year. Throughout the year, many of you have written and given us wonderful feedback as well as shared details of your planned trips and provided suggestions about the places you have already visited. Your input has been invaluable and is very much appreciated, thank you!

Nahum Gutman was one of Israel's most well known artists. His body of work was broad. He worked in a variety of media including oils, watercolors, gouache, sculpture, mosaics and engravings.

Many visitors to Nazareth are not aware that only four miles away lies the ancient city of Zippori (pronounced Tsippori in Hebrew). This was the administrative and intellectual capital of Galilee, known as the "city of peace'". Zippori features beautiful mosaics and an elaborate ancient reservoir (see separate article). It was described as "the ornament of all of Galilee", by Josephus Flavius, the Jewish historian. While known primarily as a Jewish city, it became the seat of a Christian bishopric in the 5th century CE. And here, on a hilltop there is a church and a watchtower in memory of Anne and Joachim, the parents of Mary, Mother of Jesus.

The roots of the Order are traced to the 12th century (after the third crusade) when a group of hermits began practicing their Christianity on Mt. Carmel by following the ways of the Prophet Elijah.

In Tel Aviv there are four routes, known as the Orange Routes that will help you get acquainted with the city. A number of the city's smaller museums are located on these routes.

Standing in the Talmudic era synagogue of Chorazin and looking down at the light blue waters of the Sea of Galilee, 900 feet below, one can’t help but be inspired. Chorazin was one of numerous towns that thrived in the Galilee – after the destruction of the Second Temple.

The Jezreel Valley is home to some of the most fertile farmland in Israel and it is a place with wonderful vistas. The agricultural heartland of the country; it is an area rich in natural springs.

The year was 1882. High atop Carmel Mountain, 100 Romanian pioneers purchased a tract of land in a place known in Arabic as Zammarin. They were members of the Hovevei Zion movement and they dreamed of working and living off the land.

It was a military secret until 1972, when its very existence was first revealed. During the War of Independence, fire from Arab League forces, made it impossible to reach the positions on Mt. Zion. These served as the forward position in the defense of southwest Jerusalem. At the time, a tunnel linked Mt. Zion with the Yemin Moshe neighborhood (in the western part of the city).

According to the ancient Greeks, Hercules was once seriously wounded. He found the herbs to cure his wounds, in this port city. Greeks settled here in the third century BC and apparently, they believed that the word Akko derived from the Greek word for cure, Aka. This might explain why the name of this 4,000-year-old city appears in so many different ways. Officially, it is usually spelled as Acre (in English). However, in Hebrew, the city’s name is pronounced Akko.

The Scroll of Fire is one of the most beautiful sculptures in Israel. Located in what is the single largest memorial to the Holocaust in the world, the Martyrs Forest, it is an imposing work rich in detail and history – it tells the story of the rebirth of the nation from the Holocaust up to the Six Day War. The sculpture commands a spectacular view of its surroundings.