Jordan Star National Park — Attraction in Emek HaMaayanot Regional Council

I told Deb we were going to Jordan Star National Park for our next stop on our Israel tour, which sounds lovely and it was – the Crusader castle of Belvoir – how cunning is that?! When we turned off the main road we didn’t even see the castle on the hills above and it was a 6km drive over a steadily worsening road to reach the summit with the castle.

We parked in the huge car park along with 4 cars belonging to the staff – we were the only visitors! The guy in the ticket office was really helpful and we started our walk to the castle. Although a lot smaller than the Islamic Nimrod Fortress we saw yesterday, Belvoir was far sturdier with solid walls, a massive rock cut moat and concentric layers of walls. Science at its best.

This castle was also a solid military structure, no expense was wasted on any decoration and the black rock made it look even more squat and dense. Although in a pretty much impregnable position I’d have thought its isolation was also a weakness – if they spotted an Arab raiding party in the valley below it would have been long gone by the time they got there.

The castle had a lot of modern touches as it was owned by the Hospitallers – there were facilities for bathing and washing as well as proper latrines which didn’t usually feature in European castle (or even house!) design in this period.

There were lots of information boards showing what the castle looked like before being dismantled after the garrison surrendered following an eighteen month siege. The route ended with us going down steps into the moat to come out via a sally port – another brilliant bit of design that was almost invisible even though we knew where it was. We walked along the moat then up the other side and across the modern bridge. Attached to the fortress is a rare plant nursery which would have been great to visit in spring but only had crocus...

Brilliant for all ages! I came with my 4 year old son. He loved the place! There are many places to go to, stairs to climb, tunnels, rooms, corridors, really fun time! There is a bridge over the moat and you can go down into the moat itself. There are signs in Hebrew and English everywhere. There is also absolutely stunning view, with a spot that has maps explaining what you see in this view. And there is also an outdoor exhibition of metal statues, which my 4 year old son also really liked and if you are an art lover I'm sure you will too.

The thing that really stood out and made it so much more fun was that you can get a navigation game where you get a map with 13 spots on it, you find a word in each spot and once you fill all the words you can get into a lottery where the prize is a yearly subscription to all sites of the RATAG - which is very nice. But the prize doesn't matter, the navigation brings you to all the places in a very fun way and really adds to the enjoyment.

I must say that I've been to many of RATAG's parks but this one was a really awesome surprise. Just by looking at the photos and videos online doesn't do justice to how cool this place is.

AND!! you can come in the afternoon, see the place during sunlight, do a small picnic on the wooden tables at the entry, and once the sun goes down the place lights up with many magnificent lights, which really add to the atmosphere.

And we also saw a huge beehive on the ceiling of what was the dining room of the castle, which was really cool. Never saw a...

I visited the fortress on the morning of a hot summer day, which was somewhat unwise - most of the site is unshaded and can get pretty hot. The weather and the flies were probably the only downside of an excellent site - the ruins are extremely impressive (I couldn't identify what height the reconstruction began, if there was some at all) and the brochure was informative and easy to understand (that might be another disadvantage for a curious visitor - there was not enough in-depth information about the site /period / inhabitants. Furthermore there is a sculpture garden with works of a renowned Israeli artist Yigal Tumarkin. There is a memorial to Orde Wingate that needs tender...