The Judean Hills are not just the way to the destination. They are a story in their own right: ridges rising from the coastal plain in the west to Jerusalem in the east, cut by deep streams, with the ancient road winding between them. At Sha'ar HaGai, Bab el-Wad in Arabic, the road enters the hills, and beside it to this day lie the armored vehicles of the 1948 convoys, left in place as a living memorial to the battles for the road to Jerusalem in Israel's War of Independence. From the air you see what every commander understood then: one narrow road between commanding ridges.

But the great story of these hills is written into the land itself, in the terraces. The agricultural stone terraces shaping the hillsides were built and maintained over thousands of years, some of them very ancient, and many are still planted with olives and vines. From above they look like contour lines drawn by hand: an entire cultural landscape created by generations of labor.

Hidden among the folds of the hills are places each worth a stop: the Latrun monastery on the edge of the plain, whose monks planted vineyards and founded one of the country's oldest wineries; Ein Karem, the hillside village whose churches and monasteries nestle between two wooded hills; and the small villages scattered along the ridges.

These hills are a watershed in the fullest sense: to their west, green Mediterranean country; to their east, half an hour from Jerusalem, the Judean Desert already begins. And in recent years a circle thousands of years old has closed here: boutique wineries have brought the vine back to the Judean Hills, and from the air you again see vineyards on the terraces, in the very places where grapes were grown in biblical times. If you wish, the experience can continue on the ground: we offer winery flights with landing nearby, arranged in advance.

The Jerusalem and Judean Hills route, about an hour. Can be combined with a winery flight.מסלול ירושלים והרי יהודה, כשעה. אפשר לשלב עם טיסה ליקב.