By Anna Sangrey
Many visitors travel to Israel to witness the story of the Holy Land. However, how many travel to see the land itself? A wide range of plants and animals reside where cultures meet, and while Israel is a land of history, archeology, and faith, its story occurs in a real place. Israel, at 8,367 square miles, is similar in size to Fiji, El Salvador or Slovenia, yet what its land lacks in size, it makes up for in diversity.
Three continents meet in the Middle East: Asia, Europe, and Africa. Israel, as part of the merging of languages, beliefs, and regions, exhibits a wide range of terrain, plants and animals. In the plant kingdom, many of over 2,600 identified plants consider the Holy Land the farthest limit of their growing region, whether the plants are stretching south from Europe or north from Egypt.
Native animals, browsing among the plant life, make their homes throughout the mountains, seaside and fertile farmlands. Together with mammals, such as the mountain gazelle, over 100 native reptile species crawl along the ground, inhabiting the land.
Crowding the skies above, butterflies and birds add color to the landscape, and their noise gives music to the city of Jerusalem and other tourist destinations. Avian migratory routes run the 290 miles (470 km) from north to south, and with 500 species, either native or migratory, bird watchers have many opportunities to glimpse a new species while hiking through Israel.
Although it is small, Israel, through its heritage of faith, continues a legacy of filling the earth with diversity and life. The first book of the Torah, and hence, the Bible, tells mankind (in Hebrew, adam) to be a steward of the land (in Hebrew, adamah). From the Dead Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, Israel continues to do so.
Genesis 2:15
“The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”
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