Customer Reviews

Skyline: Israel From Above

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"This is the land. Without words. A thousand forms, a thousand colors, watercourses, highways, domes, twists and turns. You can see the fissure line, the skyline, the lightline, and the watershed line."

You certainly can. In 208 magnificent photographs! There are mountain ranges, sand dunes, flatlands, and orchards. There are ancient mines, dating from the time of King Solomon. We get to see rivers, aqueducts, and terraces. Some detailed shots of the Dead Sea, Jaffa and Tel Aviv, Eilat, Masada, and Jerusalem. We see beaches and water parks. Deserts and coastlines. And more. In glorious color.

I recommend it.

As I live in Jerusalem and walk its streets every day I took particular pleasure in seeing from a completely different perspective many familiar landmarks. As one who has driven on the road up to Jerusalem many times seeing the aerial view of the winding narrow highway from the Kastel, gave new insight to the battle over the highway in 1948.
The book is organized around the seven gates to the Old City and there are especially clear depictions of some of the world's holiest places.
Many of the photos are made when Jerusalem is covered with a thin layer of snow.
There are captions from the writings of Yehuda Amichai, Amos Oz, Nahmanides, Mark Twain. The first photograph contains an account of the city as it looked in the late twelvth century to Benjamin of Mitudela. A couple of particularly inspiring passages are provided by Shmuel Yosef Agnon.
The photos themselves make one realize how much richer the world before us than we ordinarily see, how much more beauty inherent in a place than we ordinarily know.
A true gift for the eyes and the soul.

I bought one as a Bat Mitzvah gift. My Israeli friend liked it so much I bought a second one for him.