Touring Israel with a tour guide

The German cockroach (Blattella germanica) 🚫 Uninvited guest alert! This is one of the most common & persistent household pests worldwide, including in Israel. While Israel is home to incredible wildlife, ancient history & breathtaking landscapes, this little guy is not the souvenir you want. 🏨🚽🍽️ 🏠 Habitat Warm, humid & close to food & water. Think kitchens, bathrooms, behind refrigerators, inside electronics. 🍕 Diet Omnivorous scavengers. They’ll eat crumbs, grease, soap, glue, book bindings...& even each other’s shed skins. If it’s organic (or close enough), it’s on the menu. 💞 Mating Females produce a pheromone called blattellaquinone to attract males. After mating, she carries an egg case (ootheca) for ~28 days, then drops it in a hidden spot. Each case holds 30–40 eggs, and one female can produce 4–8 cases in her lifetime. Yes, they multiply fast. 🚫 At Imagine Israel Tours, we want you to enjoy Israel’s real wonders - not these uninvited guests. We onl...

Did you know that the oldest map of the Holy Land is actually a magnificent mosaic? I've always been fascinated by maps, & this is one of my favourites. Unveiling the Marvels of the Madaba Mosaic...... Crafted by anonymous artists, likely for the Christian community of Madaba, this magnificent mosaic depicts part of the Middle East during the height of the Byzantine period & is the oldest surviving original cartographic depiction of the Holy Land - & especially Jerusalem. It is comprised of thousands of coloured stones, & portrays a vast expanse of land, stretching from Lebanon in the north to Egypt in the south, & from the Mediterranean Sea in the west to the Arabian Desert in the east. Madaba, an ancient town of the Jordanian Plateau, is mentioned in the bible as a Moabite city (Numbers 21:30 & Joshua 13:9) but in the bible it was known as Medeba. Today, Madaba (Arabic: مادبا; Biblical Hebrew: מֵידְבָא‎ Mēḏəḇāʾ; Ancient Greek: Μήδαβα) is the capital city o...

Nomad jellyfish (Rhopilema nomadica) Come summer, Israel's Mediterranean coast becomes a hotspot for these drifters. Love them or avoid them, they're fascinating. 🌿 HABITAT The most infamous is the Nomad jellyfish (Rhopilema nomadica) - an invasive species from the Indian & Pacific Oceans. It entered the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal & has thrived here since the 1970s. Its body is light blue, with a rounded bell commonly 40–60cm in diameter, but it can reach up to 90cm & weigh 10kg! You'll also spot the Fried Egg Jellyfish (Cotylorhiza tuberculata) – harmless & beautiful - plus moon jellyfish (Aurelia aurita) . 🥚 BREEDING Jellyfish have a 2-stage life cycle. Adults release sperm & eggs into the water. Fertilised eggs grow into larvae that settle on the seabed, becoming polyps. These polyps then bud off tiny baby jellyfish (ephyrae) when water temperatures drop. In Israel, we are already seeing massive swarms which will be here through September. 🍽️...

Rabbi Henry Pereira Mendes of Shearith Israel 📅 ON THIS DAY: 8 June 1898 The Orthodox Union is born - & changes American Jewish history. 25 years after the Reform movement formed its own congregational body, Orthodox Jews in the United States created their own unifying voice: the Orthodox Union (OU). The founding meeting took place at Congregation Shearith Israel,  the historic Spanish & Portuguese synagogue in New York. The driving force? Rabbi Henry Pereira Mendes of Shearith Israel, who, alongside Rabbi Sabato Morais of Philadelphia, had already founded the Jewish Theological Seminary in 188. Why the urgency? Rabbi Mendes & his colleagues believed the Reform movement was abandoning too much Jewish law, especially the kosher dietary rules ( kashrut ). With Reform growing rapidly, particularly among new immigrants from Eastern Europe, they wanted a strong organisational voice for traditionally observant communities. What made the OU different? *A fierce commitment...

The Egyptian fruit bat (Rousettus aegyptiacus) Israel is home to 33 bat species, but only this one is a fruit bat. Forget what you know about creepy cave dwellers. These gentle, dog-faced bats are vital to Israel's ecosystem, & you can spot them at dusk across large parts of the country. 🌿 HABITAT From the Galilee & Golan Heights down to the Negev's Ein Gedi & Eilat Mountains, these bats love warm caves, abandoned bunkers & even ancient ruins. The Banias nature reserve & Nahal Soreq Cave are famous for their colonies. They roost in huge numbers, sometimes thousands strong. 🍽️ DIET Strictly frugivorous (fruit-eaters). Figs, dates, ripe persimmons, mulberries & even cultivated orchard fruits. They don't use echolocation like insect-eating bats - instead, they click their tongues rapidly to navigate. Think of it as a built-in fruit GPS. 🥚 BREEDING Mating happens in late autumn. Females give birth to a single pup (rarely twins) April - June – just in ...

The common chameleon (Chamaeleo chamaeleon) Lizards represent the largest group of reptiles in Israel, which is home to approximately 100 different reptile species! The common chameleon is one of them, & is found in scrublands, pine forests, coastal plains (& even urban gardens), for example the Carmel Range, western Galilee, Hula Valley & the Sharon region. They love bushes & trees, particularly pistachio, oak & tamarisk, where they move slowly & stealthily. Strict carnivores, their diet includes flies, grasshoppers, crickets & caterpillars. They catch them using a sticky, accordion-like tongue that shoots out in 0.07 seconds - & which is longer than their entire body length. Contrary to popular belief, they don't change colour just to "blend in." In Israel, they shift between green, brown, yellow & even dark gray to regulate temperature, communicate mood, & yes - to hide from birds, snakes & rival males. Each colour change hap...