Photos

Winter Rains Bring Rare April Bloom to Mount Tabor (PHOTOS)

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Photographer Gil Zeharia photographed Mount Tabor by drone. He said he hasn't seen the area bloom like this at this time of year, and hasn't seen a bloom like this since he was a child. (Gil Zeharia)

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Photographer Gil Zeharia photographed Mount Tabor by drone. He said he hasn't seen the area bloom like this at this time of year, and hasn't seen a bloom like this since he was a child. (Gil Zeharia)

Heavy winter rains have caused Israel's Mount Tabor to bloom at an abnormal time of year. The blossoms usually appear in early March, and only stay for a couple of weeks. Photographer Gil Zeharia said that he hasn't seen flowers and greenery on the mountain comparable since he was a child, and he's never seen a bloom this late in the season.

Zeharia used a drone to capture the sight, snapping photos of purple flowers, butterflies and the rolling green hills of the region.

Mount Tabor is often held to be the location of the transfiguration of Jesus before his death. It is the site of other Bible stories, as well as the location of many notable battles throughout history, from the Crusades to the Napoleonic Wars.

"For me, Tabor is a mountain that is connected to my ancestors' history, and to know that so many great things happened there gives it more importance and meaning to me," Zeharia said.

The mountain has an iconic dome shape and is surrounded by valleys, offering a 360-degree view of the Jezreel Valley, Mount Gilboa, the Samarian mountains, Mount Carmel, the Golan Heights, Gilead, Afula, as well as the Lower and Upper Galilee and Mount Hermon at Lebanon's border, according to Israel21c.

"There are very few mountains that look like it in the world," Gil Haran, tour planning director and lead tour guide at Touring Israel told Israel21c.

There are two churches at the summit, the Franciscan Church of the Transfiguration and the St. Elias Greek Orthodox Monastery.

"I'm inspired to capture the area by drone because we are rarely able to experience views like this from our ordinary sight," Zeharia shared. "I love being able to share the landscape from these angles that we don't often get to see."

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