Aliyah 115: Biblical Natural History Museum

. . . and stalactite cave in Beit Shemesh.

I like to explore and explore everything. A lot of times that leads to duds though sometimes it leads to nice surprises. Jaffa and Mazkeret Batya come to mind – surprisingly interesting by way of somehow ending up in the right places not actually on the maps or brochures. A hike by the Dead Sea was also amazing and I only found it because the well-advertised hikes were closed.

The Biblical Museum of Natural History was one of those places in the back of my mind to visit though I hadn’t yet made it, in my two years since making aliyah. My cousin, a mineral expert who travels around the world and imports them, came for a visit. He can walk into a museum and say, “they switched the labels there … that one is from Colorado, not Tennessee, and that one needs to be cleaned, spun around, and put under good light and it’d be worth $15,000.”

We met one his rock buying customers at the museum who donated / loaned most of the rocks at the museum. The two of them spent hours talking about every facet, cranny, striation, tannin, flavonoid, and babka of their shinnies. I just nod and agree they’re pretty.

While these guys ogled the rocks, I explored the museum – going in the exit. (The other way was through an auditorium, and I was just going to take a moment and look at the last room while waiting for them … and then kept going. They never left the rocks.)

Like many a’museum in Israel, it’s bite sized though unlike many museums, it’s packed with interesting things. There’s no fluff here. The exhibits are original – things you won’t easily find elsewhere and certainly not in one place.

They’ve got live animals, some confiscated from people who try to bring them to Israel illegally which are then given to the museum. I’ve read about and watched cartoons about platypuses, though never actually seen one. Never have I ever seen a bug that looks just like a leaf next to a fire salamander, above a large, fat tadpole looking thing, next to a softshell turtle. Simply fascinating and entirely not overwhelming in a museum of this size with a focus on high-quality stuff. It’s the type of quality I’d expect to find in about one in ten items … at a much larger museum.

One of the rooms: models of Noah’s Ark. While that doesn’t sound exciting, the models are from all over the world and what is fascinating is that each reflects the people who made them. What animals to the Sub-Saharan Africans choose? What materials do they work with? What about 1700s Germany where little Christian kids weren’t allowed to play with toys on Sunday except for Noah’s Ark sets? What did the Ark look like, as described in the bible?

The museum also has large snakes to hold, small hamsters with their tiny babies (and future snake food), a pretentious rooster, rabbits, grasshoppers, and fish. The “hall of shofars” is exactly that and tour guides blow them and explain which are kosher and why.

Next to many of the exhibits are signs explaining the biblical relevance – not in a preachy way – just … “here’s what proverbs or the song of songs says about this particular plant / animal / rock”. It is a religious museum, though I’m sure it is comfortable even for one who is not religious.

The Beit Shemesh Stalagtite Cave

Again, not the largest cave in the world, though large enough to spend a 1/2 hour walk through. Discovered in 1968 while blasting the mountain to quarry stone, the Israeli Parks Authority built a long road there followed by 100+ stairs to get to the entrance, where a wonder one does not expect to find in Israel (at least, I wouldn’t), awaits you in a damp, low lit, environment of very different sized uppers and downers in a cave with walking path there-through. (Stalactites and stalagmites … I don’t remember which is which and I won’t remember by tomorrow … uppers and downers is fine.)

Also, worth a visit while in the Beit Shemesh area. If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’re American and a good chance you know someone in Beit Shemesh – and both are great places to take kids.